


It Gets Better

by orphan_account



Category: Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live RPF
Genre: Angst, Fluff, comedy husbands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23269915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: We have 3 pages!! The fandom has made a lot of progress!
Relationships: Michael Che & Colin Jost, Michael Che/Colin Jost
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	1. The Kids

**Author's Note:**

> We have 3 pages!! The fandom has made a lot of progress!

I watched Clarke play on the playground, happy to just relax. It’d been a while since we’d been able to because of Steven and Jenna, our foster parents. But since it was Sunday, me and Clarke had the day off of school, and they both had work, so we managed to get to the park.

I got up off the bench to go to the bathroom, gesturing to Clarke to let him know where I was going. He had found himself a friend, a little girl who looked about his age, 6, and he just waved before continuing their game of who-knows-what.

I stopped by the vending machine on the way back to the bench, grabbing a couple packs of Skittles, Clarke’s favorite candy. 

As I was walking back to the playground, I saw two men that I had never expected to see in real life, Colin Jost and Michael Che.

I felt my legs walk over to them. I stopped right in front of them and they looked up expectantly.

“Hey. Um, I know you guys probably get this a lot, but I’m a really big fan.” I turned to Colin first. “Your comedy is really good. It’s my safe place when my foster parents are being particularly nasty, it gives me strength, to remember that there are good people in the world. Also, thank you for all the work you did for Puerto Rico.”

Colin nodded. “Thank you so much.” I offered a small smile and turned to Michael.

“You are my inspiration. You came from nothing, and now here you are, an established comedian. My brother wants to be like you when he grows up. Thank you for giving him someone good to look up to, instead of all the dead beat men he’s gotten stuck with.”

Michael just stared at me. I offered a small smile. “Thank you.” Michael said.

I started to walk away when I once heard someone call for me to wait. I turned around to see Michael pull his sweatshirt off and hold it out. “Here. Take it.”

“Are you sure? I mean, it’s not necessary.”

Michael walked over to me and put it in my hands. “Take it. Please.”

I nodded and gripped the hoodie, hesitating. “Do you think-I mean my brother is on the playground right there, do you think he could meet you?”

“Of course.” I went off to find Clarke, Michael following behind me.

I turned once we were close. “Do you think you could stay here so that it could be a surprise?” Michael smiled and nodded, and I smiled back.

I took a few steps further toward the playground. “Hey Clarke! Time to go bud!”

He said bye to his friend and jumped off of the fireman pole he was climbing and ran over to me. I picked him up and walked over near where I had left Michael. “I have a surprise for you bud.” I walked a couple more steps and faced Michael, pointing at him. “Look who it is!”

“Michael Che!” He happily said, making grabby hands at Michael, who raised his eyebrows at me. I shrugged and handed him over to Michael who, to his credit, held him correctly.

“Hey little man.” Michael took his cap off and put it on backwards on Clarke, making him giggle.

“You’re funny!” Clarke squirmed, and Michael put him down. I thought that was the end, and started to say goodbye, but Clarke pulled Michael over to the swings. “Push me!”

Michael looked at me, eyebrows lifted in silent permission. I nodded. “Clarke, what’s the magic word?”

He looked up at Michael. “Would you push me please?” He smiled, and Michael nodded, letting Clarke drag him over to the swings. I sat down against a tree near the swings and watched, a light smile playing on my face.

The alarm I had set went off, signaling that we had to leave if we wanted to make it back before Jenna and Steven.

“Bud, we have to go back now.” I approached the swings, ready for the fit I knew was coming.

“But I don’t wanna go back there! They’re mean! I wanna stay here with Michael!!” Clarke looked dangerously close to tears. Michael had stopped the swing but was still holding on to the chains.

“I know bud, but we have to go back, it’s the law. You know what happens when they get mad.”

Clarke pouted but allowed himself to get pulled of the swing. He still had Michael’s hat on. “Hey bud, you need to give the hat back.”

Before he could start to cry, Michael spoke up. “Nah, it’s good, I have a lot of ‘em.” Clarke grinned up at him and he grinned back.

I was about to leave when Michael spoke up again. “Hey, wait a second.” I turned. “Um, I know this really isn’t my place to overstep, but I heard what he said and, um, well,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Are you guys okay? Like, are they abusive?”

Clarke looked at me. “We’re fine. Thank you for your concern though. Clarke c’mon we have to go.” My voice sounded defensive even to my ears.

Michael nodded and waved, pulling out his phone as we turned and left, probably to text Colin or something. I had planned just enough time for us to walk home, but Clarke was dragging his feet, and we’d left later than I thought we would, so we ended up taking the subway.

I managed to find a seat, and I sat down in it, pulling Clarke into my lap where he fell asleep. Michael’s hat was still on his head backwards, and I adjusted it to make it fit on his head better before I put it back on his head.

I examined the hoodie Michael had given me. It was a red hoodie that had small writing on it that I couldn’t read due to the fact that I can’t read cursive.

Careful not to wake Clarke up, I slipped the hoodie on, relishing the warmth it provided. I slid my hands inside the pocket and felt something. I pulled it out, expecting it to be a piece of trash, but instead it was a folded piece of notebook paper. I unfolded it and on it there was a phone number and a note that said “call me if you need help -mc”

I stared at the note until I heard the voice announce our stop. I shook Clarke awake and we went left, walking the couple blocks to the apartment.

I signaled Clarke to be quiet in case Jenna and Steve were home. He nodded and I opened the door, closing it silently behind me. I motioned for Clarke to follow close behind me, and we walked into the living room, letting out a sigh of relief when no one was there.

“Alright bud, you go to our room and hide that cap somewhere okay?” He nodded and ran off.

I headed to the kitchen to start cooking dinner for Jenna and Steven and their son Gunner. They had said they wanted spaghetti and meatballs so I grabbed the noodles out of the pantry, as well as the other ingredients. Checking the time, I began to make the meatballs, a recipe I knew from memory because of how many times I’d been forced to make it.

After about fifteen minutes, I put the water on to boil and grabbed a skillet to cook the meatballs.

I was about to put the sauce into the skillet when Jenna can bursting into the house.

“WHERE’S MY FOOD!”

I closed my eyes, praying that Clarke stayed in our room. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’m trying, it’ll be done in five minutes, I swear.”

“I SAID THAT THE FOOD BETTER BE ON THE TABLE!!” Jenna stormed into the kitchen. I just managed to move away from the stove before she pushed me against the counter and slapped me in the face.

“I-I’m sorry.” 

She punched me and left the room, muttering to herself about who knows what. Steven and Gunner had come in while she was yelling, and she joined them on the couch.

I moved to the stove, flicking the it off, straining the noodles and putting three bowls on the table, topping all three with five meatballs and Parmesan cheese.

“Dinner’s ready.” I said quietly, hiding pieces of garlic bread and carrots in my hoodie pocket. There was extra spaghetti that I hid, but I wouldn’t be able to get it until they went to bed.

“Go to your room.” Jenna said, looking at me with disgust.

“Yes ma’am.” I left and went to the room Clarke and I shared. He was hiding under the bed as he often did when they were home. “Come out bud, I’ve got food.” He crawled out from under the bed and sniffled, cuddling up next to me and accepting the piece of garlic bread.

“Why’d you lie to Michael?” He whispered, scared that they would here him. He had left his hat on, still facing backwards and I took it off to ruffle his hair before putting it back on his head. It was a black Yankees hat.

“I don’t know bud.”

“He’s nice Bella. I like him.”

I sighed and pulled him closer. “I know you do. I do too.” My face ached where Jenna hit me, and I could feel the bruise on my stomach forming. I gave Clarke the rest of the food that was in my pocket, and curled up on the bed, willing the tears to go away.

Clarke curled up against me, and I hugged him tight. When I fell asleep, I had dreams about Michael saving us from this hell.

We woke up at 5:30. We both got showered and dressed quietly and quickly. Clarke put his hat on and I put my hoodie on. I pulled out the spaghetti I had made last night and put it into two Tupperwares, putting more in Clarke’s than in mine and putting them in our respective backpacks. Then I got busy making breakfast, sliding a bowl of fruit and yogurt in front of Clarke before making scrambled eggs and bacon for Jenna, Steven, and Gunner.

“Hey loser.” Gunner slid into the kitchen, grabbing a piece of bacon from the plate. He was nicer than his parents. He’d never hit me or Clarke, and sometimes he would even give me money for a water or something.

“Morning Gunner.”

“Hey, dude.”

“Hello.” Clarke said. Gunner gave him a piece of bacon.

“Ooh, what’s this?” Gunner pulled the hat off of Clarke’s head.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Gunner held it above his head. “Gunner, give it back!”

Gunner was about it hand it back to Clarke when Jenna came in. “YOU DON’T SPEAK TO MY SON LIKE THAT!” Clarke immediately shrunk away. Gunner moved out of the way of his mother’s rage, although he did give Clarke’s hat back.

“COME HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!” Jenna grabbed Clarke by the war and dragged him to The Wall. It was the beating wall.

“No, no please!” Clarke sobbed as he was dragged to the window. Jenna, of course didn’t care.

“Hey stop!” I spoke up. “Leave him alone he’s six!”

Jenna stopped and let go. “Oh you’re really in for it now.” She came at me, and I had enough sense to curl up before she came at me, kicking, punching, threatening. Steve came in and joined. What a fun activity for married couples.

“Bud, run! I’ll meet you at The Spot!” Clarke nodded, grabbed both of our backpacks, and ran out of the door.

Steve and Jenna gave up after about ten minutes, after Gunner said something about school.

I staggered out of the apartment, Gunner close behind, and walked out. At the point where we split, him to go to school and me to go to The Spot, he handed me a bottle of painkillers and I gave him what I hope was a grateful smile before we headed out separate ways.

The Spot was a bench a couple blocks away from the apartment that was for some reason put in an alley.

“Bud?” I said as I reached the alley.

“Bella!” He ran up to me and hugged my legs, crying. “Bella! I’m scared!”

“I know. I know you are bud, but we have to get to school now. You can see Rex and Charlie. How’s that sound?”

He nodded, but obviously wasn’t happy about it. I grabbed my bag. As we were walking, I noticed his hat was still on his head and I smiled.

I walked Clarke to his school, giving him a hug goodbye before heading to my school four blocks away. By the time I got to school first bell was ringing, so I went to class, dropping into my seat next to Anderson, my best friend.

He looked at me, concerned and I knew that my face was probably bruised but I just shook my head. As soon as I could I left and went to the girl’s bathroom.

I looked in the mirror and, sure enough, there were bruises on my face from this morning. I hid in one of the stalls and pulled out a piece of paper that I’d been carrying since yesterday. “call me if you need help”

With shaking fingers I typed the number into my phone, pressing call and putting it to my ear.

It rang twice before someone picked up. 

“Hello?” It didn’t quite sound like him.

“Hi, um, is this Michael Che? It’s Bella, the girl from the park? You gave me your hoodie? And my little brother your cap?”

“Oh shit. No, this is Colin, one sec I’ll grab him.” I heard him move around then shout.

“Hey, this is Michael, what’s up.”

“The note said to call if I needed help.” I said, hating my voice for the way it cracked.

“Shit. Where are you? Did they hurt you? Do I need to pick you up?”

“I’m at school. Please. I’m at Townsend.”

“Can you get out? I can’t check you out or anything.”

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, yeah I can do that. Can pick Clarke up too?”

“Of course. I’ll be there on fifteen minutes okay?”

I nodded, then remembered that he couldn’t see me through the phone. “Yeah, yeah that’s good. Thank you so much.”

“Of course. Fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes.” I hung up and rested my head on my knees, trying to calm down.

After ten minutes passed I headed out, walking through an emergency exit that didn’t work anymore and into the semi-busy streets of Queens. I felt bad about leaving without telling Anderson, but I couldn’t go back. I made a mental note to text him.

“Hey, Bella, right?” Michael Che ran up to me. “Are you okay?” I looked up at him and his eyes widened. “Shit. Those were not there yesterday.” He shook himself. “First things first. Where’s your brother?”

“PS 244. It’s this way.” I began walking and Michael fell in step next to me. We walked a couple blocks in silence before I spoke up. “Why are you helping us?”

“Huh?” Michael asked, looking confused.

“Me and Clarke. You don’t know us, we’re not related, you don’t have any debt or something. Why are you helping us?”

He looked thoughtful. “You called me your inspiration and said that I was your brother’s role model. No one’s ever said that to me.” He shrugged. “You made me happy, and quite honestly I’ve never been called they by anyone. You focused on the things that we did to help the world, not the things we did to entertain it. You’re a good kid. And your brother has a big heart. I just wanna make sure that doesn’t change is all. We’re here.”

Sure enough, we were standing in front of PS 244. I nodded. “I can check him out. Give me a minute.” He nodded and I walked into the office.

“Hello, how can I help you? The receptionist looked at me, and if she saw the bruises she didn’t mention them.

“I need to check out Clarke Taylor please.”

“ID please.” She said as she pulled up his profile reaching for the phone. I showed it to her and she nodded, typing in the phone number. “Hello is this Ms. Smith’s room? Could you send Clarke to the front office for check out please? Thank you.” She looked back at me. “He’ll be right up.”

“Thank you.” I stood there for a couple minutes, pretending to be interested in the paintings on the wall until Clarke walked in.

“Bella!” He ran over to me and gave me a hug.

“Hey bud, you ready to go?” He nodded and we went outside, waving to the receptionist on the way out.

He saw Michael immediately after we left the building. “Michael!” He ran and jumped, Michael caught him and lifted him up to his hip.

“Hey, little man.” Michael seemed amused, especially when he realized we were both wearing the things he gave us. “Okay, where to now?” He looked at me. I realized I didn’t know.

“I, um, I don’t know. I just-“ I gestured to my face then at Clarke, trying to figure out what I should say.

Luckily he seemed to understand what I was trying to communicate. “Cool. Well, I have a couple places I need to go, if y’all wanna come with me.” I nodded gratefully, and we headed off. We went to the grocery store, the bank, a shoe store, and a candy store, which I suspect was only because Michael saw Clarke looking at it longingly.

We dropped all the stuff off at his apartment, minus a giant lollipop that Clarke was happily working on and a Milky-way bar for me.

“Alrighty one more stop.” Michael announced.

“Where?” Clarke asked excitedly.

“It’s surprise, little man. Be patient.” Clarke happily complied, perched on his spot on Michael’s shoulders.

“Close your eyes.” Michael told Clarke as we approached the area. I smiled as the sign came into view but stayed quiet. I’d gone once, but Clarke had never gotten to go. We payed for tickets and walked in before Michael told Clarke to open his eyes.

“Cool!” Michael has brought us to the Bronx Zoo, and Clarke thoroughly enjoyed himself, dragging us around the zoo, making faces at the monkeys and giggling when a snake got right up next to the glass.

We stopped for lunch, eating burgers and sipping soda before wandering around the zoo a little longer. Clarke got tired and went back to his spot on Michael’s shoulders.

At around three, the time I get out of school, I turned to Michael. “Thank you so much. I just-“ I looked up at Clarke, who was dozing on Michael’s head, Yankees cap firm on his head. I had a feeling it would be there for a while to come. “We really needed this.”

Michael shrugged. “Of course. I said I wanted to help, didn’t I?”

I nodded. “Yeah. We need to head home. Jenna will be home in about an hour, and Steven in about an hour and a half. The school probably already called them to tell them I skipped so I don’t want to make them more mad than they already are.”

“Yeah. Here, I’ll walk you guys home.” I opened my mouth to protest but he pointed up. “I don’t want to wake the little guy.” I couldn’t really object to that.

We walked in comfortable silence until we got to my apartment building. I checked my watch, and let Michael come up. Jenna shouldn’t be back for another fifteen minutes.

We got in the elevator, and I reached over to shake Clarke’s foot. He woke up groggily, and slumped back down so that his chin was resting on Michael’s head, and his arms were slack around his neck. Michael gripped both of his sneakered feet. He looked a little tired himself, he was leaning slightly on the wall, his cap was pulled slightly down. Despite that he looked happy, he had a smile on his face, and he was humming some up beat song I didn’t quite recognize.

We left the elevator and headed to the apartment. He raised his eyebrows at the door but I just unlocked it and let him in.

He walked in, lifting Clarke off of his shoulders and putting him in the couch. I shook my head and pointed to the door of our room. Michael nodded and scooped him up again, leaving to put him down on the bed before coming out again. I started looking in the fridge, trying to figure out what to make for dinner. I settled for tacos and started getting the stuff out. The meat only took ten minutes to cook, and I still had thirty so I just chopped veggies.

Michael was leaning against the counter, biting his lip. I noticed his discomfort when I turned around to wash a knife and raised my eyebrow. “That was them, wasn’t it. Your face, I mean.” I sighed. He hadn’t mentioned it since he first saw it, and I was kind of hoping that he wouldn’t. I considered lying, but something told me that I shouldn’t.

“Yeah. I was late with dinner last night. Plus, I got in between Jenna and Clarke this morning.”

He nodded. “Anywhere else?”

It was my turn to bite my lip. I studied his face, but I saw just open concern so I nodded again. “Yeah. Mostly stomach, some on my arms and legs.”

“Can I see?”

Might as well. I lifted my shirt and hoodie up so that he could see the ugly purple, yellow, green, brown, and black splotches that covered my torso. I let go and rolled up my sleeves so that he could see my arms.

“Shit.” He whispered. He looked me in the eye. “Bella, let me report this. Please. This, this isn’t a good environment. They’re torturing you.”

“I can’t. Clarke, Clarke needs food. They don’t give foster kids enough food, definitely not enough for growing kids. At least here there is a stocked fridge that I can sneak food from for him.”

Michael closed his eyes for a moment. “Bella, I’ll take you. I have a three bed, don’t ask why. You guys can have your own room. I swear I’ll get you all the food and hoodies and caps you want. Please don’t stay here.” His face was earnest.

I opened my mouth to reply but before I could there was a sound at the door, a key being turned in a lock, and the door opened. I pulled Michael away, trying to get him to go to Clarke, but he refused, standing between me and Jenna.

“Oh. Sweetie, who’s this guest? Do you have a new social worker?” Jenna put on her fake nice voice.

“No ma’am. This is Michael. Michael, this is Jenna.” I couldn’t help it, I hid behind Michael’s frame, keeping my head down.

“Ma’am, I’m afraid I’m going to have to take Bella and Clarke with me.”

“What? Why? The agency hasn’t contacted me.” Her eyes narrowed at me, and I grabbed Michael’s sleeve.

“Ma’am, you’re abusing Bella and Clarke, and that is unacceptable. They will not stay in your care any longer.” I could feel his muscles tense under his sweatshirt.

“Abusing her? We would never! The little rascal just gets in fights at school, isn’t that right?”

Michael turned to face me, raising one eyebrow. That was my out. I could stay here, where Clarke would get fed, be relatively safe, as long as I was here to protect him.

I took a deep breath. “No ma’am. This was from you and Steven.” I turned to Michael. “You could call the school. They would know if I got in fights.”

He nodded, giving me a smile. “Go get your brother and your stuff, alright? Me and Ms. Jenna here have some things to work out.”

I nodded and smiled and headed to my bedroom. Clarke was, as expected, hiding under the bed.

“Hey bud, guess what? Michael is gonna take us away. You like him right? C’mon he’s waiting, we gotta get our stuff alright?”

“Michael?“ I nodded and he crawled out from under the bed. I grabbed an extra backpack and started to shove clothes in it.

“Bud, grab another backpack and get your clothes okay?” It was sad that our entire wardrobe fit inside a backpack with room to spare, but it is what it is.

We headed out of the bedroom, bags packed. When Jenna saw us she started screaming. “YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BRATS! HOW DARE YOU! YOU ARE NOT LEAVING WITH THIS MAN!!”

Clarke hid behind me, and I inched forward, careful to keep my body between her and Clarke.

“UNGRATEFUL? LOOK AT THEM! THEY’RE TERRIFIED OF YOU! YOU ABUSED THEM, I’VE SEEN IT!” Michael took a breath or two then turned to us, voice much softer. “You guys ready to go?”

We nodded and Michael led us out, flipping Jenna off on the way out. We got out of the building and Clarke started to smile. The further away we got, the more he behaved like a bit his age was supposed to: care-free, happy, light. Michael picked him up and put him on his shoulders again. “I know you probably don’t want to go, but we need to stop by the CPS office so that I don’t get accused of kidnapping or something.”

I nodded. Clarke was asleep on Michael’s shoulders, his bag slung on Michael’s arm.

We walked into the office. A nice lady sat behind the desk. There were chairs, but I chose to stay near Michael.

“Hello, how can I help you.” The woman smiled up at us, looking up from some computer game.

“Yeah, I need to report an abuse please.”

The lady straightened and looked out at us. “And would that be the abuse of that young lady right there?”

“Yes ma’am and her brother.” Michael motioned to Clarke asleep on his shoulders.

“Alright. I’m going to need you to fill out these papers the best you can, and I’ll take the kids to the back, and call their social worker to get something worked out for the night.” I moved closer to Michael, close enough that I could feel his warmth.

“Can we stay with him for the night?” I whispered, surprising myself.

“What was that honey?”

“Can we stay with Michael for the night?” I spoke up slightly.

The lady looked sympathetic. “I’m sorry honey, I don’t think so.”

“Bu-“

“Bella.” Michael cut me off. He turned to the lady. “Thank you ma’am. Could we have just a minute?” The lady nodded and went back to playing whatever game she had been playing when we walked in. He pulled me over to the chairs, pulling Clarke down, shaking him enough that he woke up, grumbling before snuggling on Michael’s lap.

“You said you would keep us.” I whispered, feeling betrayed. “You said you would keep us safe.” I looked up at him. “Please don’t leave us here.”

“Bella, listen to me. I don’t want to leave you here. I don’t have a choice, okay? I swear that I will come back for you, but for now you’re just gonna have to trust me. It might be a little bit.”

Clarke stirred, beginning to realize that something was wrong. “Bella? What’s going on?”

“I don’t know bud. I don’t know.”

Michael turned Clarke around so that he was facing him. “Hey little man. Remember when I said that I was gonna take you?” He nodded. “Well, I can’t do that tonight. But I promise I’ll come back for you.”

Clarke shook his head. “No, no, no, no. I want to stay with you!” He grabbed Michael’s hoodie with all of his six-year-old might.

“I know you do little man, I want you to too, but you can’t come tonight. I’m really sorry.”

“Then stay here.” I blurted.

“Huh?”

I sighed. “Look, Clarke isn’t gonna sleep without you. Look at him, he’s already made his mind up about that. And I’m gonna be honest, I’m not looking forward to laying on a cot in the dark listening to twenty other kids have nightmares. If you really want to help us, at least stay the night.”

He sighed but nodded. “I’ll ask, but if she’s says no, I’m can’t, okay?” I nodded. He got up to go to the counter and we went with him. “Ma’am?” She looked up. “I know you said I couldn’t take them home tonight, but do you think I’d be able to stay here with them?”

The lady looked at him, then at me and Clarke before looking back up at him. She sighed, resigning herself and smiled sympathetically up at Michael. “Of course. You’re gonna have to sleep out there though.”

He smiled, and I could feel a smile growing across my face too. “Thank you ma’am.” We turned back to the waiting room area. The cushions on the chairs were removable, and we made a gigantic pile in the ground. Michael laid down first. Clarke immediately jumped on him and went to sleep. I laid on the cushions next to him, close enough to feel the warmth that he radiated, but far enough away that we weren’t touching.

“Good night Bella.” He whispered. “Sweet dreams.”

“Good night.” I whispered back. “Thank you for staying.” I fell asleep on the cushions not too long after.

I woke up to being shaken. I opened my eyes to see Clarke, dressed and ready for school. “Bella, Bella you have to get up.”

I sat up. “Thanks bud.” I glanced at my phone. 7:00. Shit. He had to be at school in an hour, which meant I had to be at school in an hour and a half. “Hey bud, is there somewhere I can change?”

He nodded. “There are showers back there.” He pointed back to where the lady had tried bring us last night.

I headed back, and took a quick shower before throwing on a t-shirt, some leggings, and of course the hoodie Michael had given me.

When I walked back out, Michael was talking to the lady in a quiet voice, and Clarke was eating what looked like McDonalds, swinging his legs on one of the cushion-less chairs. He handed me one and I put it in my bag. “Alright bud, let’s pick these cushions up, then we have to go to school.” He carefully wrapped up the rest of his biscuit, put it on the table, and began to help me put the cushions on the chairs. When we were done I told Clarke to grab his backpack and give it to me. I could keep it in my locker at school, and that would be less obvious.

I checked my watch again. “Alright bud, well you might be a little late, but it won’t be too bad. Grab your biscuit and let’s go.”

He grabbed his biscuit and trotted obediently to the door. But once he was at the door, he halted and turned to me, handing me the food before running back to Michael and hugging his legs. Michael looked startled, but knelt down and hugged him back. Clarke let go and whispered something in Michael’s ear, something that made him smile and ruffle Clarke’s hair.

Michael looked back at me and raised his eyebrow. “What, no goodbye?” I smiled and put both of the backpacks down, heading over to Michael and giving him a hug. Not one of those one armed hugs, a two-arm, tight hug, and he gave one right back.

“You’re good at hugs.” I mumbled into his hoodie. He laughed and pulled away.

“Thanks.” His face turned more serious. “Bella, listen, I promise I’ll come back for you. I swear. I took the classes a while ago. They need to do a home check and a background check and then I just need to fill some paperwork out and we’re good. I’ll have you by the end of the week.”

I held up my pinky. “Pinky promise?”

He rolled his eyes, but smiled and linked pinkies, shaking them once for good measure. “Pinky promise.”

“Thank you.” I whispered, giving him another hug. “C’mon bud we gotta get to school.” Clarke nodded and took my hand, and we left, throwing waves and goodbyes over our shoulders.

I slid into first period thirty minutes late. “Hey, what happened yesterday?” Anderson asked. “Viv and I were worried.”

“Long story. Tell you at lunch?” He nodded, and we began our tradition of subtly playing iMessage games while Mr. Smith droned on about the Cold War.

Lunchtime arrived and I headed to our usual spot behind the library. Viv was already there, and Anderson joined soon after.

“So, what happened?” Viv asked, biting into her vegetarian burger, looking expectantly at me. I filled them in, up to this morning.

“Wait, so he’s actually gonna take you? That so great Bells!” Anderson said, giving me a high five.

“Yeah, it’s awesome. I just hope it comes soon. I’m not exactly looking forward to spending time at the House.”

“Yeah. Hey, you guys can sleep over at my place if you want. You know my parents love you.” Anderson offered. “Viv can come too, we’ll make an occasion out of it.”

“For a whole week? Are you sure your parents are gonna be cool with that?”

“Yeah, I mean they miss having so many people around the house since Dante and them went to college.”

“Alright. I’ll have to text Chloe to tell her, but I’d love to come.” I shot a quick text to Chloe, my social worker, and turned to Viv. “Viv, you gonna come?”

She shrugged. “Sure, why not. It’ll be fun, and y’all have Netflix.” We laughed and finished lunch.

We picked up Clarke and went up to Viv’s apartment to let her grab clothes, telling her abuela where she was going, then headed to Anderson’s apartment.

“Hey Mama! I brought guests!”

“It’s about time you brought those lovely friends of yours over.” His mother appeared out of the kitchen. “Vivian! Good to see you sweetheart! Bella, it’s been so long! Is that Clarke! I have some cookies for you to try young man.” 

She ushered us all into the kitchen. “It was supposed to be for dessert, but we can make more.” Sure enough, there was a heaping plate of cookies, her famous Heath cookies. We all took a couple, and gave her hugs as we headed to the guest room to set our stuff down.

We were playing UNO when we called out for dinner, six pizzas, each one made for everybody’s preferences. There was a supreme for his mom, mushroom and sausage for his dad, Hawaiian for Anderson, something that we look past because we are good people, cheese for Viv, sausage for me, and pepperoni for Clarke.

We all dig in, passing pieces of pizza around the table in exchange for gossip or a bite of theirs. Anderson’s parents reminded us to go to bed at a decent time as we headed back to the guest room. Clarke was a favorite among my friends, accepted as our collective brother, and he moved from lap to lap, bringing success to everyone after we switched to Mario Kart, since he was decently good, plus no one wanted to be the person who took the win away from him.

We went to sleep around ten, piled on the king sized bed, Clarke settled into the floor, on the nest he insisted on sleeping on every time we came.

We spent the entire week like this, meals of course changing. One night we had Thai, another Chinese, another Mexican, another burgers.

Soon Sunday came. “One more day.” I whispered.

“Huh?” Anderson asked, looking up from his homework. We’d decided to do it this morning, so that we’d have free time this afternoon to wander around the city.

“Nothin’. Just thinking.”

Just then my phone buzzed. I looked but didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?” I said, answering the phone.

“Hey, this is Bella right?”

“Um, who is this?”

“It’s Colin.”

“Oh. Yeah, this is Bella.”

“Okay, look, Michael got the okay to come pick you guys up today, but he’s busy until late tonight with something for his brother, so I’m going to pick you guys up. Is that okay?”

I grinned. “Wait really? Today?”

Colin chuckled. “Yeah, today. Is five good? I’ve got errands all day.”

“Yes. Yes that is perfect.”

“Okay. You at the House, or what?”

“No, I’m at a friends.” I gave him the address.

“Alright, see you at five, okay? Are you guys good with a taxi?”

“We’re fine with anything sir. We’d crawl there if that’s what it took.”

He chuckled. “That’s not necessary. See you tonight.”

“Yes sir. Thank you!”

“Of course.” He hung up and so did I.

“Who was that? Was it Michael?” Anderson and Viv were looking at me excitedly. At the mention of Michael Clarke perked up from where he was coloring a Paw Patrol worksheet.

“Close. It was Colin.” At their looks of confusion, I rolled my eyes. “How are you guys my friends. Colin Jost? Co-anchor and head writer on SNL? His husband? Nothing? Wow.”

“Well, what did Colin say?”

“He’s picking us up tonight, Michael has some family thing. We get to go tonight!” We all jump up and down. When his mom pokes her head out, we explain to her and she joins our jumping circle, laughing.

Clarke looks confused, so I kneel next to him. “Michael’s keeping his promise bud. We get to go with him.”

He smiled. “Really?” I nod and he grins, jumping up and down. I pick him up and spin him around, making him giggle.

We calmed down enough to finish homework and eat leftover pizza for lunch before we headed out. We packed up our stuff before we left, in case we were running late.

We went to a lot of the tourist spots, but since it was in the middle of the school year, there weren’t a lot of tourists actually there. We wondered around to a couple comic stores to try to find a issue of something that Viv wanted to get her brother for his birthday.

When we got tired we headed back on the subway. It was about 4:30 when we got back, so we watched an episode of Friends.

When it ended we still had a couple minutes, but that wasn’t really enough time to do anything so me and Clarke grabbed our stuff and headed downstairs, joined of course by Anderson and Viv. We hung out in the lobby until Colin called me.

“Hey, I’m outside. You guys ready?”

“Yeah, one minute.”

“Alright.” He hung up, and we high fived our friends and told them goodbye before heading outside, where Colin was sticking his head out of the window of the passenger seat. “Hey guys!”

Clarke’s brow wrinkled. “Colin?” He looked up at me. “What happened to Michael? Is he not coming for us? He pinky promised!”

I chuckled. “No bud, remember? Michael had the family thing tonight.”

“Oh yeah.” He cheered up after that, chatting to Colin about Rex doing a wheelie and Charlie getting a gold star on his art work (both equally cool to him) and Colin nodded along, laughing and asking questions at the appropriate places.

We pulled up to Michael and Colin’s apartment and we all got out, Clarke still happily chatting about his friends, now about Danny making a monster out of play dough.

We walked into the apartment and paused at the doorway, unsure where we were supposed to go. Colin looked back at us. “Oh. You guys can go put your stuff in your rooms now.” We just looked at him, confused. His brow furrowed. “Michael never gave you a tour?” We shook our heads. “Huh. He loves showing off, I just assumed he had already done it. Well, never fear, for I am here!” He said in a grand voice, making Clarke giggle. “I’ll take you guys on a tour.”

He led us through the apartment, pointing at doors and naming the rooms that were behind before he reached the back of the hallway, where there were two doors opposite of each other. “And these are you guys’ rooms. I’ll let you guys decide who gets what, and start dinner. No allergies right?” We shook our heads. “Great. We’re gonna have lasagna, sound good?” We both nodded. “Alrighty. You guys can come out to the living room when you’re done settling in and watch a movie or something if you want.”

“Do you have Aladdin?” Clarke asked, hopping on his feet with excitement.

“I’ve got news for you, we have every Disney movie you can think of.” Colin smiled down at him.

“Really? We can watch all of them?” Colin nodded. “Yay! Thank you!” He hugged Colin, who just smiled and ruffled his hair.

“Yeah little dude. Whatever you want.” He waved, calling over his shoulder to ask him if we needed anything and headed off to the kitchen.

“Aright bud, what do you say we open these doors?” He nodded.

We opened the one on the left first, flicking on the light. It was gray and blue, with a queen sized bed and light blue sheets and gray pillows. There was a light brown desk in the corner with a gray chair. It had a mirror attached to it. There was a bookshelf in the corner, stocked with rows of books. There was a closet, with two sets of white dressers inside as well as a rack with empty hangers.

We opened the other one and I knew that Clarke was gonna want it, which was good because I wanted the first. This one was red and black themed, dark red covers with black pillows. There was white desk and bookshelf, this one less stocked with books and more with random objects, a baseball, pair of sunglasses, glass soda bottles. His closet had two light brown dressers.

“You want this one bud?” He nodded. “Great, ‘cause I want the other one. Look at us.” He grinned up at me. “Imma settle down in my room, alright? Meet me in the living room?” He nodded and put his backpack on the bed, pulling clothes out and folding them carefully before he picked a drawer for them.

I headed to my room where I did the same with my things, also putting a few pens and pencils on the desk and putting my backpack in the chair before heading out to the living room. Clarke was already there, happily watching Aladdin.

I peered into the kitchen and saw Colin making the lasagna and decided to offer to help, so I went in there. “Do you need any help?” I asked, biting my lip and keeping my head down out of habit. 

“Huh? No honey it’s fine, you can go watch Aladdin with your brother, I’ve got it covered.”

“Are you sure?” I felt bad, sitting around and doing nothing.

He put down the spoon he had been using to spread tomato sauce and turned to look at me. He stared for a while, head titled to the side and eyes slightly narrowed before he reached a decision. He smiled and nodded. “There’s some French bread over there if you want to cut some up to make some garlic bread.”

I nodded, grateful for a task. “Okay.” I moved over to the bread before realizing I had no idea where the knives were. I looked around for a while before Colin noticed and nodded his head toward the drawer. “How many slices?” I asked.

“How hungry are you and your brother?” I shrugged. He smiled. He did that a lot. I liked it. “Do six. Worst thing that happens is Michael has a snack when he gets home.”

I nodded and cut six slices, turning on the microwave oven and sliding the pieces there before grabbing the butter out of the fridge so it could start to soften. 

With nothing to do until the pieces were toasted, I sat in a stool that was in the corner, watching Colin grate the cheese on top of the lasagna before sliding it into the oven and setting a timer, humming a song as he did so. I took the bread out of the oven and put butter mixed with some garlic powder before returning them to the turned-off oven to keep them warm.

I sat back on the stool, and Colin began to clean up the counters. He put dishes in the sink and I jumped up and cleaned them. He put them up, and I was careful to catalog where they all went.

When he was down he leaned on the counter and I sat back on the stool. I could tell he was looking at me, but I looked everywhere but him. I was tempted to grab a broom and sweep, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t be welcome, plus the floor looked pretty clean.

“You got any homework?” Colin spoke up when there were fifteen minutes left on the timer.

“No sir, I finished it all this morning at my friend’s house.”

“What’s this friend’s name?”

“Anderson, sir.”

He smiled. “You don’t have to call me sir. Colin is just fine.”

“Yes sir.” I said, just to see him smile again. I could used to that.

He laughed. “So, Anderson huh?”

“Yup.”

“How’d you guys meet?”

“We met in fourth grade. He had just moved to the city and he was put in my group in history. We were talking about the Civil War, and the other kid in my group, Carson, he said that the south should’ve won because life would be some much more convenient if “the blacks knew their place” except he said the n-word. Right in front of Anderson, who, by the way is mixed. So I told him that that was sick, ‘cuz it was, and me and Anderson ganged you on the kid and got him to, ya know, stop saying stuff like that and we’ve been friends ever since.”

Colin nodded, before getting a mischievous look on his face. “Got a boyfriend?”

“Yeah, that’s a hard no.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “You got a girlfriend?”

I grinned, his smile was infectious. “Nope. Ya girl is a Single Pringle.”

“Single Pringle. Is that what the kids are saying now? That’s the hip thing to say?”

“Hip? Well, hip is not something the kids are saying.”

“No? What are they saying? Rad? Wicked?”

I laughed. “Dear God, let it stop, please!” He grinned and we sat in silence before he spoke up again.

“Yeet.” It sent us on a whole other bout of laughing, laughs so loud that we could barely hear the timer go off.

I grabbed the oven mitts before he could object and pulled the lasagna out of the oven. The smell made my stomach grumble.

“Okay, there’s a hot mat on the table if you wanna go ahead and put it there and I’ll grab plates and forks.”

“Clarke, come help set the table please.” I said on the way to the table and he got up and grabbed the plates from Colin’s hand, placing them on the table before going back for the plate with the garlic bread.

“What do people want to drink?” Colin asked grabbing three glasses from a cabinet.

“Water please. For both of us.” I said. Clarke trotted obediently back to grab his glass, and I grabbed mine and we all sat down, Colin at the head, me in his right, and Clarke on his left. I was about to start eating before I hesitated and looked at Colin, unsure whether or not he prayed at the beginning of meals.

He smiled and held both of his hands out. I grabbed his hand in one hand and Clarke’s in the other and bowed my head. “Dear Heavenly Father, please bless this food and the people eating it. Amen.” After the brief prayer Colin grabbed the serving spoon for the lasagna, spooning me and Clarke a piece before he served himself and we all dug in. The conversation at the table was not unlike the conversation we had in the kitchen. Colin would ask a question, we’d answer, he’d make a joke, we all laughed, then Colin would share a fact about his life so that it was equal sharing.

After dinner I insisted that Clarke and I clean up. We compromised and we cleared the table and washed dishes, as he once again put them away, and I made notes of where everything went. After we finished we went to the living room, where Clarke wanted to watch Friends. Colin raised his eyebrow but said nothing, and we turned it on. I did notice him glance over at Clarke every time a sex joke was made, or a cuss word was uttered, but he kept his mouth shut and Clarke remained oblivious.

He did, however gently get him to go to bed at 8:30, which was admittedly later than he usually stayed up. He walked him to the bedroom and tucked him in before coming back.

We kept watching Friends for a little bit, then Colin turned off the TV. “Alrighty, I’m going to be honest, I know nothing about raising a kid or a teenager. You guys are always together, right?” I nodded. “Could you walk me through a usual day for you? Just so that I can try to figure out what exactly to do.”

I nodded. “Well, we usually wake somewhere in the range of 5-6. We get dressed, take showers if we didn’t the previous night. Then we make breakfast for ourselves and breakfast for the family, usually eggs and bacon with coffee. We leave for school in the ballpark of 7. His school starts at 8, mine starts at 8:20, so I drop him off about ten minutes early then get to my school as the bell is ringing. He let’s out at 2, I let out at 2:30, but I have various club meetings everyday, so I leave school around three, then pick him up then we head to the apartment. Clarke does his homework, I usually get a page or two done, then make whatever I was told to for dinner, have it on the table at 5:45. Then after dinner we clean up and head to our room. Clarke colors and I finish my homework. He’s usually out by 7:45 to 8, I usually fall asleep around 10. Neither of us have allergies, I have a wide array of recipes at my disposal. His favorite color is red, mine is blue. He loves Skittles, I prefer Milky Way. Both of us get straight As and good attendance. We’re both Marvel over DC, Coke over Pepsi, Fallon over Kimmel.”

He blinks. “Wow. That was a lot. Okay. Where are your schools?”

“Queens, four blocks apart.”

“You guys set your own alarms, or do we wake you up?” Set our own.

“You said no allergies. Any food that is disliked?” He doesn’t like green veggies, I don’t like gravy.

“Do you make your lunch, or it eat school lunch?” Depends on if we have food to take. Usually school lunch.

“Do you have subway cards?” Yes. Stocked with 20 rides each, replenished when necessary.

“Birthdays?” Clark is April 5, I’m July 18.

“Okay. Me and Michael usually take showers at night, so if you guys stick to morning you should be clear. You won’t have to cook breakfast for us, so you can wake up a little later if you want. We leave around 7:30, so if you forget something you can just text us and let us know. Cooking dinner is also unnecessary most nights, although occasionally it may be useful. We won’t get home til 6:30, maybe later, but we’ll text if that’s the case. The TV had Disney+, HBO, Prime, cable, and Netflix. You guys are welcome to use it whenever, just open a new sub account on Netflix if you’re gonna watch a show that we are also watching. We usually go to bed around 11, fall asleep around 12. Ground rules of the apartment: If you make a mess, clean it up, no lying, no cussing unless you’re in pain, don’t go to bed angry, and turn lights and things off when you leave the room.

I nod. “Okay.” We sit in silence before something occurs to me. “What about Saturday’s? What’s the schedule then?”

His eyes widen. “Um, well, we leave earlier, probably around 6. We won’t get back until probably 5 or 6 in the morning. My mom or dad, or Michael’s parents will probably come check on you guys a couple times throughout the day, but you’ll mostly be on your own. We’ll make sure that there is plenty of food in the fridge, and our phones are on us 24/7, so just text or call if you need anything and we’ll try to figure something out.” He shook his head. “Shit. I’m really sorry, we’re kinda just abandoning you for 24 hours. I swear we’ll try to get permission to let you come in sometimes, just so that you’re not alone.” I smiled. “What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. It’s just...you’re worried about leaving us alone, but the very fact that you’re worried about it means it doesn’t matter.” He gave me a confused look. “The last set of foster parents we had, Jenna and Steven, they would ignore us for days on end. The days that they left us for the entire day were the best because we could relax without someone yelling at us or punching us. The fact that our worst day is going to one, only be once a week, and two, be because you aren’t there, is amazing.” I glanced at my watch. “Well, it’s bed time. Good night.”

“Goodnight honey. Sweet dreams.”

I popped my head into Clarke’s door, smiling when I saw him sleeping, hat on his bedside table and cuddling a teddy bear he got from who knows where.

I went to my bedroom and plopped on my extremely comfortable bed, sighing as it sunk. I had just enough presence of mind to plug my phone in before I passed out.

I woke up at 5:30 despite the fact that I had set my alarm for 6:00. I decided to look at the bookshelf since I couldn’t go back to sleep. I flicked on the light and went over to the bookshelf, interested to see what kind of books were on it. There were four shelves, and each shelf had two layers of books on it. The first shelf had classics in the front and holiday books, mostly Christmas, in the back. The second shelf had historical-fiction war books in the front and history in the back, and the third shelf had fantasy in the front and sci-fi in the back.

The last shelf caught my attention. It was the only one that didn’t have layers. I sat down on the floor to get a better view. The shelf was half and half what looked like children’s books and comic books. I looked through the comic books first. They were all in protective plastic so I didn’t actually look in them. There were He-Man, Aqua-man, Wonder Women, Black Widow, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Donald Duck, and Teen Titans. You name it there was probably a copy.

I put the comic books down and pulled out the children’s books. They were all illustrated. I was looking at a Peter Rabbit book when there was a knock at my door. “Decent.” I said. The door opened and Colin walked in, wearing a Harvard tee and plaid pajama pants, leaving the door open.

“Hey. I know you said we didn’t need to wake you up, but I was up anyway.” He tilted his head. “Whatcha got there?” I closed the book, fingers keeping my spot to show the title.

He smiled, and gestured to the floor, raising his eyebrow. I scooted over so that he could sit beside me. “Michael laughed when I kept these books. They were from when I was kid. I just couldn’t let them go.”

“The pictures are beautiful.” I whispered, running my fingers over Peter Cottontail’s fur.

“Yeah. My grandma used to read it to me when I would visit as a bedtime story. She gave it to me so that I could read it to my kids if I ever had any.” He smiled softly.

“She sounds nice.” I said. My head dropped on his shoulder.

He looked down at me. “She is. Maybe you can meet her soon. I think she’d like you.” I smiled at him.

“I’d like that.” We sat in silence for a little bit. I was just about to drift off when my alarm went off. I groaned and got up to grab it. “School time.” 

He smiled and got off the floor. “I’ll leave you to it. There are towels in the bathroom, extra washcloths are in the cabinet. Soap is Dove, we don’t really have girl shampoo right now, but you can use mine if you want to. You eat omelets?” I nodded. “Alright, I’ll make you one. Cheese? Chives?”

“Sounds great. Thank you.”

“Of course honey. Anything else?” I shook my head and he left, closing the door behind him.

I grabbed a t-shirt, pants, underwear, hairbrush, toothbrush, and toothpaste and headed to the bathroom. I turned on the shower, which luckily was pretty simple. I took a quick shower then got out, dried off, and got dressed. I brushed my hair and brushed my teeth with no toothpaste and headed out.

Colin and Michael were in the kitchen talking quietly about something. I glanced around but I didn’t see Clarke so I headed to his room. He was awake and playing with the baseball, rolling it back and forth. He looked up when he saw me. “Bella! Colin woke me up, but you were in the shower.”

“Yeah, well I’m out so it’s your turn now.” He nodded and grabbed his clothes and headed off. I dropped my dirty clothes in the hamper that I found in the closet and headed out again to the living room, loud enough that they knew I was there but quiet enough they could keep talking.

I flicked on the news, putting it on mute and reading the captions. It was going to rain on the walk home, so I made a note to take the subway.

“Bella! Omelet is ready!” I got up and went to the kitchen. Colin grinned at me. “Grab something to drink, would you? Orange juice, milk, water, just something to hydrate.”

“Yes sir.” I grabbed a glass, proud of myself for remembering where they were and filled it with water.

I sat down at the table, and drank my glass of water first before starting the omelet. I wasn’t really that hungry, since I usually only ate one meal a day, but I didn’t want Colin to think I didn’t like his cooking, so I tried to eat it. I only managed to eat half of it before I got full. I pushed it around on the plate. Clarke entered and plopped across from me, gobbling his own omelet quickly and drinking a glass of milk.

“Hey bud, you want the rest of mine?” I whispered, pushing it toward him. He nodded and grabbed it, eating it too. I smiled and grabbed both plates and forks f the table and bringing them to the sink to wash. Michael and Colin were watching me.

“You didn’t need to do that honey. I would’ve made him another one.” Colin said softly. I looked up from where I was scrubbing the plate. He looked sad, and I decided I hated that look on him.

“I know.” I looked back for Clarke, but he was watching Frozen. “My appetite is really small because we weren’t fed a lot, and the small amounts of food we got I usually have to him, ‘cause he needed it more. I ate all I could, I swear.”

Colin gave me a look. “Well, I’ll keep that in mind when I make food. But Bella?”

“Yes sir?”

“That’ll never happen here, okay?” I nodded, grateful for his understanding.

I finished cleaning up the dishes and put them up and brushed my teeth for real, reminding Clarke to do the same. I grabbed my bag and popped into Clarke’s room to grab his too before heading off to the living room. “C’mon bud, we have to go.”

He nodded and turned off the TV before grabbing his bag. “Bye Michael! Bye Colin!”

“Bye, little man!” Michael said, ruffling his hair.

“Goodbye, good sir.” Colin said in an awful British accent, making Clarke giggle. “Hey, where’s your hat?” He asked, noticing. Clarke’s eyes widened and he ran back to grab it.

“Bye.” I said, giving them both hugs. Colin was also very good at hugs, and he smiled when I mentioned it.

“Bye, hun.” Colin said. “Try to eat something at lunch okay? Just a little something.” I nodded.

“Bye Bell.” Michael said. “Text if you need anything. Spare key under the loose number on the door.”

I nodded. “What do you want for dinner?”

Michael looked confused, but Colin just shook his head. “We’ll take care of it. Homework before TV when you get home, okay? There’s apples in the fridge if you guys need a snack. Drink a glass of water when you get home. Hydrate.”

I nodded again, and Clarke appeared, hat now sitting backwards on his head, a tuft of his brown hair sticking out.

“You ready now?” He nodded. “Alright let’s go.”

We waved bye again and as we left I saw Michael kiss Colin.

The happiness continued on for the next week, but of course it was my life, so something had to change.

Tuesday evening I was in my room working on physics homework. There was a knock at my door. “Decent.” I said, not giving much thought to it. Colin and Michael entered looking somber. I turned in my chair to look at them. “What’s up.”

“Can we sit?” Colin asked, gesturing to the bed. His smile was missing and I frowned, nodding. “Bella, we have something to tell you. Just know no matter what you say we’ll support you, okay?”

“Okay.” I nodded, confused.

Michael spoke up. “CPS called me this morning, after you left. They’re going to take Jenna and Steven to court on abuse charges, and they want to know if you’ll testify.” The two men watched carefully for a reaction.

“When is the trial?” I said, keeping my voice carefully neutral.

“A month from tomorrow.” Colin answered.

“Do they want Clarke too?” They glanced at each other.

“Yes. But we haven’t told him yet. We wanted to ask you first.”

I nodded and took a deep breath in. “I’ll do it.” They looked surprised, but I continued. “I’ll do it but Clarke won’t. He can come but he is not going to testify.” They nodded.

“Okay. Do you want to tell him, or should we?”

“I’ll tell him.”

They nodded. “There’s dinner ready when you’re ready, alright? Lemme know if you need any help with your homework.”

I nodded. As they were about to leave I spoke up again. “Hey guys?” They paused at the door. “Thank you for telling me first.” They nodded and smiled, leaving and closing the door behind themselves.

I tried to work on my homework but I couldn’t concentrate so I went out and ate my dinner in the living room and watched TV. Colin and Michael had pretty good poker faces and didn’t give anything away. I got up and washed my plate, before coming back to the living room and kneeling in front of Clarke.

“Bud, I need to tell you something, alright?” He nodded, and Colin paused the TV. “Okay. You remember how Jenna and Steven were mean, and sometimes they’d hurt us?” He nodded, cuddling closer to Michael. “Well, they’re going to get in trouble for it. But they want me to talk at the trial, and they want you to go too. You think you could do that.”

He but his lip. “Do I have to talk to them?”

I shook my head. “No bud, trust me, you’ll be as far away from them as I can get you.”

“Will Michael and Colin be there?” I looked up and they nodded.

“Yeah, bud, you can sit with them if you want.”

He nodded. “Okay, I’ll go. But I wanna bang the hammer.”

I smiled. “Alright bud, I’ll make sure you can bang the hammer.” He smiled and curled further into Michael.

I got on the couch and curled up next to Colin, putting my head on his shoulder as he pressed play on Princess and the Frog. He put his arm around my shoulders, and we watched Disney quietly and happily arguing over who got to hold the popcorn and whether Prince Naveen was hot or not, and the trial wasn’t mentioned again.

The day of the trial me and Clarke got school leave. The trial started at ten, so we got up a little later than usual, around seven.

We took showers and got dressed. I wore black pants with a red blouse, Clarke wore blue jeans with a button-down shirt with cars on it. Luckily it was an off week for Michael and Colin, so they were able to accompany us without missing any important meetings.

We headed out around nine, taking a cab so that our clothes wouldn’t get sweaty. Colin was wearing a blue button down with back dress pants, jacket, and shoes and Michael was wearing the same but with a purple shirt.

We got to the courthouse around 9:45. We sat in the very back of the room, Clarke between Michael and Colin, and I sat next to Colin, on the end.

Jenna and Steven arrived at 9:55. They were in street clothes and handcuffs, that were unlocked when they sat down. I glanced at Clarke, but he was playing with a Rubix cube that he had found on his shelf.

The trial started promptly at 10:00.

“All rise for the Honorable Judge Isabelle.” We all stood as a woman who looked to be mid-thirties came in. She stood for a couple seconds before sitting down, and we all sat with her.

“The court will now here the case of the State of New York vs Jenna and Steven Miller.“ She banged the gavel.

The lawyer who was on our side got up and talked for a while to the jury, then the other lawyer got up and talked. I was too nervous to actually pay attention to what was happening.

“You Honor, I would like to call Bella Taylor to the stand.” Our lawyer said, and Colin nudged me, making me startle before getting up to go to the assigned spot.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

“I do.”

“Be seated.” I sat in the uncomfortable seat and shifted nervously. I glanced back at Clarke who shot me a thumbs up and I relaxed a little bit.

“Bella, you were the foster child of Jenna and Steven, correct?”

I drew in a shaky breath. “Yes ma’am, me and my brother Clarke were under their care.”

She nodded. “And during that time did they ever abuse you verbally or physically?”

I nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

“How often would you say?”

“Umm, I didn’t keep count, it would be an estimate.”

“That’s alright sweetie. How many times would you say?”

“Three or four times a week, maybe once a week for my brother.”

“Did you do anything that might anger them?”

My brow crinkled. “I mean, usually it was because I stood up for my brother or dinner wasn’t on the table at the right time.”

“Never because you lashed out?”

“No ma’am, I never put my hands on them.”

“Thank you, that’s all.” The lawyer began to walk away.

“Actually, ma’am, could I say something else?” She seemed surprised, but nodded. I turned to Jenna and Steven. “I just want you to know I’m not angry at you for what you did to me. I forgive you.“ I turned to the judge. “Ma’am I will respect and honor the decision made in this court, but I would like to say that I don’t think they should go to jail. I don’t think they should get any foster kids, definitely shouldn’t adopt, but they don’t deserve to go to jail. The state pays foster parents money to take care of us. They needed the money, so they took the kids. But they needed the money for their family, not to take care of us. The abuse was just so that we wouldn’t ask for it, we would know our place.” I turned back to Jenna and Steven.

“I don’t believe that you are bad people. Gunner is nice, and that is something that would not happen had his parents been bad people. You never hurt him. He should not be forced to pay for your mistakes. I hated you for a long time. When I first heard of this trial, I wanted to testify to send you away for as long as possible. But you brought us happiness. Indirectly, for sure, but it was still partly because of you. Had me and Clarke not been trying to avoid the apartment because of what you did to us there, we never would have met Colin and Michael. They make us happy, they take care of us.” I shrugged. “Revenge wouldn’t do any good. If you never get foster children, you have immediately solved the problem. Will you guys sign a deal that doesn’t allow you to take anymore foster children or adopt?” They both nodded, and wiped their eyes. I turned to the judge. “I ask you to not subject them to any jail time. That’s all I have to say. Can I leave now?” The judge nodded, dabbing at her own tears. 

I got up and walked back to Colin and Michale who both gave me a big hug before pulling me down to the bench. Clarke happily showed me his solved Rubix cube.

“Look, I did it! Michael only helped a little bit!” He whisper-shouted.

I smiled and ruffled his hair. “You sure did bud.”

The trial went on for a little longer. Both lawyers called a couple other people up to the stand, then made another speech before resting their case.

“Jury, I need a verdict. The court will reconvene after thirty minutes.” The judge banged her gavel, making me remember my promise to Clarke. I jumped up and caught up to her.

“Ma’am? Ma’am!” She turned to me. “My brother really wants to bang your gavel, do you think that would be possible?”

She looked at me and smiled. “Of course honey. Tell him to come up when I get back in the room after the recess.”

I nodded. “Thank you so much!”

I ran back to the bench. Michael and Colin were both standing. “Hey Bella, I’m going to take little man to the bathroom. Stay with Michael?” I nodded and Colin and Clarke left.

Michael and I sat down on the bench, and I rested my head on his shoulder.

“Bella, I just wanted to say that what you said up there was really nice of you.”

I shrugged. “It was all true.”

He nodded. “You know they’re probably still going to jail, right?“

I sighed. “I know. But at least I tried to do something about it.”

"I’m proud of you, Bells.” He smiled down at me, and I smiled up at him.

“Thank you.” I whispered. Colin and Clarke came back soon after, and I told him what the judge told me.

“Really?” He asked excitedly.

“Yup.” He grinned and I ruffled his hair. We spent the rest of the recess playing I Spy and a couple rounds of 20 Questions.

When it was over the bailiff cleared his throat impressively loud. “All rise for the Honorable Judge Isabelle.” She walked in and paused. I nudged Clarke who got up and ran to her. She picked him up and went over to her bench where she sat down and put him in her lap.

“We have a little visitor to dismiss court this afternoon. Jury, your verdict please.”

The head juror stood up. “Your Honor, the jury finds the persons Jenna and Steven Miller guilty.” She paused and bit her lip. “The jury suggests a signed deal preventing the fostering or adoption of any future children.” She sat down. Whispering broke out in the courtroom.

“Order.” The judge called. “So says you all?” The jury nodded and muttered agreement. “Okay.” She turned to the audience. “By the power vested in me by the state of New York, I condemn these persons to the signing of the deal agreed upon by all parties.” She handed the gavel to Clarke and whispered something in his ear.

“Court is adjourned!” He yelled, proceeding to bang the gavel several times and giggle. The judge laughed too, and picked him up, carrying him over to us.

“You’ve got a special little girl here.” She said to Colin and Michael, beginning one of those conversations adults have in the presence of kids about the kids while the kids are supposed to pretend they don’t notice.

“Yes ma’am. We are very proud of her, her and her brother.” Michael grinned at us and we grinned back.

“Well you oughta be. Ya know, in all my years as a judge, I have never seen anybody do what she did today. Took me quite by surprise.”

“Yeah, us too.” Colin said, smiling as usual.

“Well, y’all must be mighty good foster parents if you got such good little ones.”

“Yeah, well, we try our best.” Michael rubbed his neck, and Colin’s smile turned fake.

I rolled my eyes. “They’re just being modest. We are very lucky to have them taking care of us.” Colin’s smile turned genuine again, and Michael stopped fidgeting and looked happy. Mission accomplished.

“Aww. Well, I gotta go, duty calls and all.” Judge Isabelle put Clarke down and waved before heading out to the door she’d left through earlier.

“What’s through that door?” I wondered aloud, as we began to head out ourselves.

“Her office, it’s where they have all the lawyer meeting to discuss plea deals and stuff.”

“How do you know?”

“Movies.”

“Oh. Which ones?”

“I dunno. Loads of ‘em. You ever seen My Cousin Vinny?”

“No. Who names their kid that?”

“Vinny’s parents, that’s who. You serious, you’ve never watched it?”

“Nope.”

“Colin, we gotta get these kids some food pronto so that we can educate them.”

“Alright babe. Whatcha wanna eat kiddos?”

“Meh. I don’t care, not hungry.”

“Pizza!”

“Alright, pizza it is.”

“Who named pizza?”

“I dunno kiddo.”

“The Italians, duh Bells.”

“Well I know that, I meant what person, like who was just thinking ‘You know what I should name this? Pizza!’ I mean it‘s a weird name.”

“I’m going with Mussolini.”

“Michael!”

“What? He’s the only Italian I know!”

“What about da Vinci?”

“He’s Italian?”

I relaxed and listened to the banter, occasionally popping in myself, wondering if this was the kind of thing that normal families did.

—--———--2 YEARS LATER-——-——-—

“I need help tying my tie!” I heard Clarke shout, trying and failing to braid my own hair.

“On it!” I saw Pops rush down the hallway in his suit. “Colin, Bells needs help with her hair!”

Dad popped his head inside the bathroom. I let my hands drop and gave him a helpless look and he grinned. “Don’t laugh at me.” I whined.

“Never.” He said, dodging my poorly aimed hair tie. “What are we doing with it?”

“I don’t even know. Something.”

“I’m hearing French braid.”

I shot him a smile. “You know me so well.” He grinned and started on my hair, managing easily what I had struggled with for half an hour.

“There you go. You ready?” I nodded and we headed to Clarke’s room, where Pops had just finished tying his tie. All the boys were wearing dark purple button down shirts with black ties and slacks. I was wearing a dark purple blouse with black pants.

Pops looked up when we walked in. “We all ready?” We nodded. Clarke grabbed his cap and we all left the room together, flicking the light off. We got into the Uber that was waiting outside.

The Uber driver looked back at us as we all climbed in. “Big occasion?”

We nodded. “We’re getting adopted!” Clarke exclaimed happily. He’d been telling everybody ever since we’d learned the news a month back. There’d been some paperwork to do, showing our consent and such, but finally it was becoming official.

The Uber driver smiled and congratulated us, and him and Clarke made small all the way to the courthouse.

“Well, here we are. Congratulations on the adoption, you guys seem like a lovely family.” We smiled at him and got out of the car.

The hearing started very soon after we got there. Most of the SNL cast was there, as well as both Dad and Pops’ family.

Just as the judge was about to begin, Aunt Kate came running in. “Wait! Wait!” She paused, breathing heavily. “Okay, I’m good, you can start now.”

The room chuckled. “Alright. We all ready?” We nodded, and he continued. “You know, family court is important work. We spend day in and day out dealing with things we feel no family should have to go through. So on the rare day, when we get to smile at work, these days mean a great deal to all of us. And I may not look it, but I’m a huge cornball, and I live for this.” He pointed at the bailiff, who played “We Are Family” on a speaker, causing everyone to laugh.

“We are here on this day to officially create a new family. Colin Jost and Michael Che, do you wish to adopt Bella and Clarke into your family today?”

Dad and Pops nodded, grinning up at the judge. “I do, Your Honor. More than anything.”

“Of course. Why else would we be here?”

The judge chuckled. “Bella and Clarke, would you like Colin and Michael to be your parents?”

“Sure. Sounds nice.” I grinned.

“Yes please.” Clarke said.

“Well then, by the authority vested in me by the stare of New York, I pronounce you a family.” The judge signed the certificate of adoption and held it up. The entire room broke into applause.

We got up and did a group hug, and were joined by Meemaw and Gramps, Pop’s parents, and Nana and G-Da, Dad’s parents. We were soon surrounded by the honorary aunts and uncles and friends until the entire courtroom was engaged in a group hug.

I fought my way out of the circle and jumped up on a bench, set a timer on my camera and raced back. Colin, Michael, Clarke, and I all grinned up at the camera, and it was perfect.


	2. Update

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bella steps in.

“Hey, have you seen your dad?” Aunt Kate asked. We were at the studio. It was a Saturday, around 11 in the morning. Dad and Pops brought us in once a month on a Saturday, just so that we could still kind of spend time together.

“Nope. I think him and Pops said something about dropping in on Pete. Why?” Pete was really more of a fun older cousin than an uncle, so he didn’t get a title.

She walked further into the office. I was plopped in Dad’s chair at his desk doing homework, Clarke was playing on his phone in the armchair in the corner.

“Well, we were supposed to do a Jacob feature and a Laura feature, but Vanessa is sick, so we need to write something new, fast.”

“Wait, what? They put Aunt Vanessa in two features?”

“Yeah, it was partly because they really wanted both of them, and partly because of a bet in the makeup department about whether they could do it.”

I snorted. Sounded like something they would do. “And Boss Man was okay with it?”

“Well, he may have been bribed by some people who really wanted to win the bet.” I narrowed my eyes. “Yes, one of those people were me, and yes one of them were Keenan and yes he only gave in because of Keenan’s puppy eyes.”

“Alright. Well, I’ll let him know you’re looking for him when I see him.”

“Thanks Bells. Hey Clarke.”

“Hey Aunt Kate.” He said, looking up from his phone to wave before looking back quickly.

“Bye kiddos.”

“Bye.” She left and I fiddled with my pencil before logging on to Dad’s drive. All the cast and crew had access to every single skit made in SNL history that was produced, dress or air. It was one of my favorite things to watch in my free time in the studio.

I pulled up Jacob and Laura clips, then moved on to Eddie Murphy, then Chris Farley, then Samberg, and then I fell down the rabbit hole, only emerging when somebody called my name.

“Bells! Bella!” I looked up to see Dad leaning on the door frame, grin on his face.

“Hi. Oh, Aunt Kate wanted you talk to you. Aunt Vanessa is sick.”

He nodded. “Yeah, she already found me. May I?” He pointed at me, and I looked down.

“Huh?” I realized I was at his desk. “Oh, sorry.” I jumped up and plopped on the couch, starting back on my homework. At about 2:00 Dad spoke up again. He’d been typing nonstop, probably trying to write a new feature for Update.

“Clarke, can you go grab Pops for me please? I think he’s in your Aunt Leslie’s office.”

“Yeah, one minute, I have to finish this level.” I rolled my eyes. He’d been working on the same level for thirty minutes, he wasn’t going to be down anytime soon.

“I’ll do it Dad.”

“Thanks Bells.” He looked up and flashed a smile before going back to the screen in front of him.

“Sure.” I needed a break from homework anyway. I went to Aunt Leslie’s office, but Pops wasn’t there. She said that he’d been called to Lorne’s office, so I headed out there next.

I knocked on the door. “Boss Man?” I felt a surge of pride that I was the only person allowed to call him that, at least to his face.

“Come on in, Bella.”

I opened the door. Pops was sitting in the chair across from Boss Man. “Pops, Dad sent me to get you. I think he’s trying to rewrite things for Update since Vanessa is sick.” Pops looked back at Boss Man.

“Go ahead, Michael.” Pops nodded and got up, ruffling my hair as he exited. “Bella, how are you today?”

Boss Man never started short conversations, so I sat down in the chair. “Not bad, been doing some homework, watched some videos in the drive earlier.” I shrugged. “The normal. Had tacos for lunch.”

He nodded. “Bella, I have a request to make of you.”

“What’s up?”

He leaned forward. “You’ve been your Dad’s office today, I presume.”

“Yes sir.”

“So you’ve seen him working?”

“Of course sir. He’s a little stressed.” Boss Man nodded.

“See, here’s the thing, Bella. We have a staff of writers, plus an Update staff. Hypothetically we could pull this off. But, I really don’t want to put that added stress on them, especially because they need to be making their last edits to scripts and focusing on that. Agreed?”

“I mean, sure, but the sketches cut were barely written, and the shorts that were cut, and I mean this in the most polite way possible, but they were definitely cut for a reason other than time. What’re you gonna do, get people to talk slow?”

Boss Man chuckled. “No Bella, and I will be passing in your thoughts of those shorts to your parents, I’m sure they would love it.” I grinned sheepishly, shrugging. “I want to keep the features.”

“But who would play them?”

Boss Man leaned back in his chair. “Well, that’s why Michael was in here.”

I felt my brow crumple. “Huh? Pops can’t play them, he talks to both of them. It would just be weird if Dad played them, some weird kink thing.”

He gave a full laugh then, and I felt proud that I had made Lorne Michaels laugh. “No, Bella, neither of your parents will be playing them. I was talking to Michael to see if he would be okay if you and Clarke did it.”

“Wait, what? But we aren’t cast members.”

Boss Man raised an eyebrow. “I am well aware of that Bella. Look, Michael said that you could do it, but not Clarke. I think we could manage to get Cecily to do Jacob if you’d be willing to do Laura.”

“Did you already talk to Dad?”

“Yes, I was in the room when Kate told Colin of the news. I suggested it to him, he said it was fine with him for you to do it as long as both you and Michael also consented.”

“So if I say yes, Dad can stop stressing out?”

He chuckled. “Bella, I don’t think your father will ever stop stressing out. But yes, he will stop stressing out about writing the extra scripts.”

“All I would have to do is talk to Pops?”

“Yes, well, talk to him through the cue cards and also look into the camera, but essentially yes.”

I nodded. “I’ll do it.”

Boss Man leaned back forward in the chair. “Excellent. You’re going to need to go down to hair and makeup so they can see what they’ll need to make, plus wardrobe. I’ll find your parents and let them know, you run along. Wardrobe first, please.”

“You got it.” I hooped up, pausing at the door. “Open?”

He nodded, standing up as well. “Yes, leave it open, dear, thank you.”

I flashed him a peace sign and ran off to wardrobe.

“Bella? Who sent you hun?” Dale asked, looking up with pins in his mouth, sewing some costume.

“Um, Lorne? I’m gonna play Laura on Update tonight.”

His brow crumpled. “Really?” I nodded. He shrugged. “Alright. Let’s see what I’ve got.” He spit the pins out on the table. “Luckily, you are about the same size as Vanessa, just a little shorter, so it ought to fit fine.” He pulled stuff of a rack. “The pants may not fit, but since they won’t see it, that shouldn’t matter. Honestly, you could probably just wear the blazer and shirt if you wanted to.” He handed it all to me and pointed to a changing area. “Change, we’ll see what we need to change.”

I nodded and obediently trotted off to the changing area, quickly pulling the clothes up. I looked on the mirror and rolled up the pants and sleeves a little bit before coming out.

Dale looked up and walked over to me. “Twirl?” He said. I did a slow spin and he nodded. “I thought so. It’s a little big on you, but since it’s a reoccurring character, we can’t just cut it. We’ll use safety pins. Stay.” He went digging in some random box and pulled out a box of safety pins and started to pin the blazer and shirt, expertly hiding the pins within the folds of the clothes. Within half an hour the costume was altered and back on the rack. 

“Thanks, Dale!”

“Of course, Bella.” He waved, turning back to the costume he had been adjusting.

I headed to Jodi next for the wig. There was no way that they would be able to make a wig in time, so I just crossed my fingers that they would find something that worked.

“Hey Jodi!” Jodi looked up from her phone.

“Hey Bella. What’s up?”

“I’m gonna do Laura tonight on Update.”

Jodi’s eyes widened. “Shit. Honey, I don’t know if we have a wig that would work.”

“Well, Lorne told me to come here, but I’m sure that we could just do something to my hair.”

“Yeah, honey, here, let’s go to Louie and see if we can’t work something out.” I nodded and headed next door to Louie’s station. “Hey Louie.”

“Hey Jodi. Hey Bella. What’s up guys?”

“Well, Bella here is supposed to play Laura tonight, and I don’t have a wig for her.”

“You’re doing Laura? Here, sit down.” He patted one of the makeup chairs. “I’m gonna try a few looks to see what I’m going to need done to get you ready, alright?”

“Okay. What about my hair though?”

“I’ll work on that, honey.” Jodi said and I nodded. Louie played some jazz playlist that had some of the songs that Pops played at home because he is secretly a 80-year-old man inside. I hummed along, closing my eyes at the soothing feeling of people playing with my hair, opening my eyes for Louie when necessary.

By five they’d found something that worked for them. Jodi had found a hairstyle that was pretty easy, and she braided my hair to make it stay untangled to make it easier, and Louie took the makeup off.

I headed back to Dad’s office. Pops was also there, on the couch with a laptop, probably editing a script, Dad was doing the same thing at his desk. Clarke was still playing his game, i think a couple levels ahead now. Pops looked up when I walked in.

“Hey Bella, where you been?”

“With Boss Man, then Dale, then Jodi, then Louie.

He nodded. “So you said yes?”

“Yup.”

Clarke looked up. “Said yes to what?”

“I get to play Laura tonight.”

“Really?” I nodded. “Cool. Don’t mess up, loser.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, runt.” He stuck his tongue out, and I retaliated by throwing a pencil at him.

“Guys, calm down.” Dad said before it could escalate. “What do you want for dinner?”

“Don’t care.” We said in unison. I plopped down on the couch next to Pops.

“Michael? Opinion?”

“Nah, whatever works.”

Dad sighed. “Alright, Chinese it is. Everyone want their normal?” We all nodded. “Alright, I’ll call it in.” Dad left the room to order the Chinese. I texted Viv for a little bit, until Dad came back into the room. “They said it’ll be ready in 45 minutes.”

Pops stood up, stretching. “I’ll grab it.”

“Can I come?”

“Sure.”

“Bet.” I popped up slipping earbuds in my ears as we headed to the elevator. I would’ve felt bad about it, except that Pops also had earbuds in.

We walked out of the building and headed to the Chinese place, pausing to take pictures and sign a couple autographs for the people in line for tickets outside.

We got to the Chinese place in fifty minutes. We walked up to the counter and paid for the food, waving and thanking the cashier as we left.

We were three blocks away from the studio when someone tapped Pops on the shoulder. I stopped politely, but Pops kept walking. I shrugged apologetically at the man in the police uniform and pointed to my earbuds and jogged to catch up with Pops. We walked a few steps before I felt somebody grab my shoulder forcefully. I turned around, instinctively reaching out to stop Pops too.

I saw the police officer who had stopped me earlier. He had one hand on his gun, the other pouting at something, and I could tell that he was saying something, but I couldn’t tell what. I took my earbuds out.

“What’s in the bags?”

“Chinese food.” I looked up at Pops. who’d also taken out his earbuds and also flipped his hood down.

“Where are you going?” The officer demanded.

“What’s it to you? We’re going back to the studio. Pops, what’s going on?”

“Quit talking, keep your mouth shut.” Pops said. He jaw was clenched, his eyes were glistening with anger.

“Don’t tell the girl not to talk. Where are you going?”

“Rockefeller, studio 8H. We have to go.”

“I’ll tell you when you can go.” The officer turned to me. “What is your relation to this man?”

“What! Why does that matter? We didn’t do anything!” I looked around, but most people were just walking by. One girl was videotaping.

“Bella.” Pops warned.

“He’s my father. Look, we need to go, we’re gonna miss dress.”

“You aren’t going anywhere. ID.”

“It’s in my pocket.”

The officer turned to me. “Get his ID.” I looked up at Pops, and he nodded slightly. I reached into his hoodie pocket, but it wasn’t there.

“Which pocket.”

“Back right.” I grabbed the wallet and opened it to show his ID to the officer.

“Stay.” The officer turned to start talking into his radio.

“Bella, would you text your dad and tell him we’re going to be late?”

I nodded and reached to my pocket to grab my phone. “Hey, what’re you doing?” The officer’s hand went right back to the gun at his side, the other holding Pops’s ID. I heard a sharp inhale from Pops.

“I’m texting my dad.”

The cop’s eyes squinted. “You said that he was you dad.”

“No I said he was my father. I need to text my dad.”

“Bella. Respect.” Pops muttered.

“Sorry.” I grumbled. “I have two fathers. This is Pops. I need to text Dad to tell him we are going to be late.”

“You aren’t going to text anybody. Keep your hands where I can see them.” I glanced at Pops, at his slightly raised open hands and I put my bag down and copied him.

“Any weapons?”

“No sir.” I answered.

He glared at me. “I didn’t ask you.” He turned to fully look at Pops. “Any weapons.”

“No.”

The cop rolled his eyes. “Yeah right. C’mere, out of the walkway.” We moved over near to the wall of the building, bringing our bags and dropping them again. He pointed at Pops. “You, interlace your fingers on your head, and turn to face the wall.”

“We have rights. Why are doing this to us? Stop, please.” I tried, feeling tears start to well in my eyes. 

Pops just shook is head sadly. “Bella, please. Just do what they tell you.” He interlaced his fingers and turned to face the wall, leaning his forehead on the wall. The officer started patting him down, pulling gum and his phone out of his pocket.

“Stay.” The officer said and turned to me. “Your turn. Do the same.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “What?”

“You heard me.” The cop looked at me

“What, so that you can have an excuse to grope me?”

“Bella!” Pops shouted. “Listen to him!”

“Please, help us. We did nothing wrong.” I pleaded towing the people passing, to the girl recording, but nobody did anything.

“Bella, please.” Pops’s voice was quiet, and I could tell he was crying. I slowly walked back over to the wall and interlaced my fingers, making sure my elbow was brushing Pops.

“Pops. Why is this happening to us? What did we do?” The tears flowed freely down my face as the cop started to search me, spending way too much time on my breasts and butt. He pulled out my phone and a pencil and threw them on the ground.

“Nothing.” Pops whispered as the cop walked away with an order to stay. “We didn’t do anything Bella. I’m so sorry.”

I heard the officer talking to somebody, then footsteps coming toward us. I leaned closer to Pops, and felt his warmth. His elbow came down slightly and rested on my shoulder.

“These two?” It was a lady’s voice.

“Yeah.”

“Alright. Both of you, turn.” We turned. It was a lady cop, the original cop standing behind her.

“Please. We need to get back. My dad, and my brother, they’re waiting for us.”

“Yeah, well, cooperate and it’ll go faster. What’s in the bag?” I slumped against Pops and let him answer the questions.

“Bella!” I heard someone shouting. I straightened up and tried to peer down the street, pushed back by Cop 1.

Dad ran up, Aunt Kate, Aunt Leslie, and Boss Man close behind him. “A fan saw you, ran back and told the security who came and got us.”

Boss Man turned to the cops. “I’m Lorne Michaels. This man is my employee, and this is his daughter. We work at Saturday Night Live. You will be sued, and department will be contacted about your firing. There are hundreds of fans present in and outside of the studio right now, as well as millions at home. They will all learn of this outrage and will demand your firing, so if I were you I would just resign, save everyone some trouble.”

Dad and the rest of them walked up to us. Our hand were still on our heads. “I’m so sorry.” I glanced over, and seeing that both of the cops were distracted I put my hands down, turning and burying my head in Pops’s chest. I felt his arms fall and hold me.

After a few minutes I pulled away. “What time is it?”

He checked his watch. “7:45.”

“Were you gonna give me a ticket tonight?”

He nodded. “Front row. Why?”

“Live or dress?”

“Both.” 

I ran over to the girl who was still recording. “Are you an SNL fan?” She nodded. “Look, we have to get back to get makeup and stuff for dress. Can you carry those bags back?” I pointed at the Chinese. “We’ve got front row tickets for dress and live that are yours if you do.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We’re gonna need you around for that video anyway.” She nodded and I grinned. “Thank you!” I ran back to Pops and them. “We have to go. Dress is starting soon, we can’t miss my television debut.” They looked at me in shock. “I turned to Aunt Kate. “Race you?”

She smiled, looking relieved. “You’re on, Bella.” We both shot off. I could hear other footsteps behind us as the others joined in the race.

I won, Dad, then Pops, then Aunt Kate, then Aunt Leslie. Boss Man came in as we were catching our breath. “I believe we have a show to put on.” He said, raising his eyebrow. We all grinned. Aunt Kate ran off to hair and makeup, since she was in the Cold Open. I found the girl, Emily, who’d carried the food in and traded the tickets for food.

We went to Dad’s office, shoving food on our mouths before running off to get changed ourselves.

I stood in my costume, nervously watching the crew set up the Update desk, Dad and Pops standing right beside me. “You can do this Bells. Just believe in yourself.” I whispered to myself. Dad and Pops headed to the set, sending me a thumbs up. “All you have to do is talk to Pops.”

“It’s time once again for our Newscasters of Tomorrow segment, where a kid joins us to give us the news from their perspective. Tonight we have a young actress who was in the Disney XD original movie “The Dolphin Diaries”. Please welcome Laura Parsons.”

I rolled out on stage, grinning at Pops. “Hello, Michael. What a thrill it is to be here!” I tried the voice, I suspect only partially succeeding.

“Aw, thanks for coming Laura.” Pops smiled softly.

“I hear Emily Blunt is here, and she’s the new Mary Poppins.”

“That’s right, she’ll be in the new movie.”

“I’m supercalifragilisticexpial-available. ‘Ello governor.” I put on an awful British accent, which apparently was good becuase the audience laughed.

“Okay, Laura. I don’t think auditions are being held right now, why don’t you just tell us what’s going on in the news.”

“Well, there’s this big election coming up. Hilary Clinton versus Donald Trump. Some people say Donald Trump is a bully, because he called people names. He might have said some bad things to a lady on a plane!”

“That’s right.”

“And then he shoved his hands up her skirt!” I said that line with great enthusiasm, relishing how uncomfortable Pops got.

“Laura! This is an adult subject. Do you know what sexual harassment is?

“I think so. It’s when the boss looks at you and says, ‘Hey toots, if you want this job, you better give me the goods!’” I said, miming holding a cigarette.

“Alright maybe. Wow, maybe you do know what it is. Umm, I hope that’s not the only thing you learned about this election.”

We continued, finishing the sketch a couple minutes later.

“Laura Parsons, everybody! For Weekend Update, I’m Michael Che!”

“And I’m Colin Jost! Good night!”

“I did it!” I said over the cheering of the crowd.

“Yeah you did! Proud of you, honey!” Dad replied. We all stood up, taking a dramatic bow before waving and disappearing.

I went up to Dad’s office where I plopped down on the couch face down, still feeling the adrenaline. I heard muttering outside before the door opened and Pops walked in, closing the door behind him.

“Hey Bella. You good?”

I looked up at him. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

He frowned. “Um, because of the cops?”

The adrenaline left my body. “Oh.”

Pops face dropped. “Look, Bells, I didn’t mean to remind you of it.”

“Why’d that happen?” I whispered.

He scooted so that he was right up next to me, and I cuddled further into the hoodie he’d replaced his jacket for. “Bella, I don’t have to tell you the world’s a fucked up place. It didn’t happen for any damn reason other than I’m black and had a white girl with me.”

“If we didn’t do anything wrong why’d you make me listen to him? We could’ve fought, we could’ve just kept walking.”

Pops sighed. “Bella, just because we didn’t do anything wrong doesn’t mean that officer wouldn’t have had me or you on the ground in a second and slapped handcuffs on, or had a gun to our heads. It’s easier to just go with it.”

“I’m sorry.” I whispered into his chest, half hoping that he wouldn’t hear me.

“Why?”

“That’s never happened to me before, and I’ve carried beer home to foster parents with bruises on my face, and hoodies up. But the way you’re talking, it sounds like it’s happened to you before.” I frowned. “You weren’t smiling. I hate it when people aren’t smiling. Especially you and Dad, it doesn’t look natural.”

“Bells. Hey, Bells, look at me.” He nudged me until I obeyed. “I won’t ever let you get hurt, alright? I love you too much for that.” His face softened. “I’m proud of you tonight, you did good.” He smiled, and I smiled back.

“Thank you.” I closed my eyes and settled in.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, we still got a second show kiddo, can’t fall asleep now.” I groaned and sat up.

“I need coffee.”

“Now you sound like my kid.” Pops ruffled my hair and got up to get me coffee, hopefully. I relaxed into the couch knowing that my parents would always protect me.


	3. School

Clarke’s PoV

“Boys.” Mr. Williams scolded as me and Rex got a little too loud in the back of the room. We rolled our eyes, but obediently stopped, going back to the laptops in front of us, and Mr. Williams went back to teaching the the idiots in my class how to multiply fractions. Rex and I were well ahead of the rest of the class, but weren’t allowed to skip a grade, so we just kind of learned with a fourth grade class in a third grade room.

“Listen up. Boys, that includes you too.” Mr. Williams announced with ten minutes left in the school day. “Friday is Career Day. I’m going to send a letter home with all of you requesting your parents show up.”

I groaned, looking over at Finn and his friends. As much as I’d love to have my parents come in, Finn would love to make my life a even bigger hell on front of them. Mr. Williams handed me a paper, and I wadded it up and shoved it in my bag.

The bell rang and me and Rex headed out. I dropped him off at his apartment and walked back to mine, which was only two blocks away.

When I got home Bella still wasn’t there, so I got a glass of water and knocked my homework out and opened up Netflix, watching The Office.

“Hey bud.” Bella said when she walked in. I heard the sink running before she sat down at the table. We sat in silence, both occasionally chuckling at the show as Bella did her homework. I started dinner at about 6 since Dad and Pops usually got home around 6:30.

“Heya kiddos!” Dad announced as he entered the apartment.

“Hey Pops, hey Dad.”

“Smells good bud. Want me to take over?” Pops offered, ruffling my hair. I squirmed away, pretending to dislike it more than I actually did.

“No, I got it.” Pops nodded and leaned against the counter.

“Anything interesting happen at school today?” Dad asked, entering the kitchen and leaning against his husband.

I shrugged. “Kids in my class are stupid, Rex and I played games in the back of the room. Same old same old.”

“Anything coming up? Tests, field trips, motivational speakers?” I shook my head. “Really? Because Mr. Williams called a couple hours ago asking if we’d be willing to bring food to Career Day.”

“Oh. Yeah, I forgot about that, I have a letter for you.” I winced at the poor lie.

They watched with narrow eyes, but didn’t say anything. Pops pushed himself off of the counter and stretched.

“I’m going to take a shower. Fancy joining me?” Dad at least had the decency to look embarrassed as he nodded and headed behind Pops to their master bathroom.

I worked in the kitchen for a little bit, slicing a tomato and an onion and tearing lettuce before Bella walked in.

“You haven’t told them about Finn, have you?”

“Have you told them about Viv?” I shot back.

“First off, we are dating, and that is way different than a bully. Second, we’re gonna tell them this weekend when she comes over.”

I sighed. “No, I haven’t told them. I can handle it.”

She gave me an odd look. “You don’t get it, do you? They want to help us.” She sighed and pulled me into a hug. “They aren’t like the rest of them Clarke. They care.”

“I know.” I swallowed. “I just don’t want them to think I’m weak.”

Bella pulled away. “Bud, you are the strongest person I have ever met next to Dad and Pops. Only stupid people would think you are weak, and neither of our parents are dumb.”

I nodded, and she smiled, ruffling my hair. “Good.” She went back to the table, gathering her homework and taking it to her room before returning and taking out plates. We made up the burgers, I made mine and Pops’s, she made her’s and Dad’s. We brought the plates to the table, then went back to grab the salads and forks, then took another trip to grab beverages.

“Dad! Pops!” We called in unison as we sat down at the table. They emerged from their room and sat down. We said a quick prayer before beginning to eat.

“Good burger.” Pops said around a mouthful and I grinned. Bella kept sending me looks throughout dinner but I just ignored them.

She caught me near the end, when I’d finished eating and no excuse for not answering.

“Are you going to tell them or should I?” She said bluntly.

“No. I’m not telling them and neither are you.”

“They deserve to know, Clarke.”

“What do we deserve to know?” Pops asked in confusion.

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter, it’s not a big deal.”

“If it’s not a big deal, then why won’t you tell us?”

“Later, okay? I’ll tell you later.” He opened his mouth to talk again, but I beat him to it, grabbing my plate. “Look, I’m tired, I’m just going to go to bed.” I dropped my plate in the sink before going to my bedroom, thankful for the lock as I clicked it. I’d only used it twice now, the only other time was right before the trial.

I heard footsteps then a knock on my door. “Clarke?” Pops asked. I heard the doorknob jiggle.

“Go away please.“ I said, exhaustion suddenly filling my every bone. “I want to go to sleep.”

“Little man, please, I want to help.”

“Go away.” I glared at the door.

“Lit-“

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” I yelled, feeling tears in my eyes, and I heard Pops sigh and walk away. I buried my head in my pillow and fell asleep.

The rest of the week continued the same way. I ignored my family, speaking minimally during meals so that I wouldn’t get sent to my room for being disrespectful before getting up and silently going to my room. I didn’t lock my door, but they all seemed to understand and didn’t try to follow me.

Friday I woke up and got dressed. I looked at my bedside table and grabbed my Yankees cap, pulling it on backwards. I left my room, poured a bowl of cereal and shoved it down my throat. Dad and Pops watched silently. If they were surprised to see the cap they didn’t mention it. We were going to take a cab, since they were going to come with me anyway.

“Look Clarke, I know you don’t want us to be with you, okay? We’re the last slot, we’re gonna talk, give you guys donuts and leave. We should be gone by 10:30.” I nodded, and Dad sighed. “Alright, let’s go.” I grabbed my bag and headed to the elevator, popping earbuds in my ears and turning the volume all the way up.

We arrived at school and I jumped out of the car, finding Rex and sitting next to him on the bench in comfortable silence. The bell rang and we went to class, taking our seats in the back and talking quietly. I could feel my parents eyes on us but I ignored it.

Mr. Williams waited about ten minutes after the tardy bell rang before standing in front of the class. “Alright. Today is Career Day, and I’m glad that so many people’s parents were able to come.” Before he could continue, Finn walked in, casually smacking gum as he strolled into the room. “Mr. Hudson, may I ask why you are late?”

Finn shot a lazy grin. “You know me teach, I couldn’t get the ladies off of me.” I snorted. Finn never had girls anywhere around him, unless he was tormenting them. Finn turned to face me. “Something funny, runt?”

I shook my head, slumping down further in my seat, pointedly looking at my sneakers.

“Words.” Finn snarled.

“Mr. Hudson, that’s quite enough.” Mr. Williams attempted to get the attention of his class, but nobody was paying attention to him, they were more focused on my humiliation.

“I’m sorry for laughing Finn. It wasn’t funny.”

“That’s right. Because I get all the sluts, and you get nothing, you little piece of shit. No wonder your parents didn’t want you.” His friends snickered, and he turned to the front of the room, giving his lazy attention back to the teacher, and the rest of the class followed his example Mr. Williams introduced the first parent and I attempted to give my attention.

“Last up are Clarke’s parents, Colin and Michael.” I slumped further in my seat, staring at the scratches on my desk.

“Yo, that’s where the little fag gets it from. His parents are homos.” Finn said and his friends chuckled.

“Hello. My name is Colin, and this is my husband Michael.” Dad’s voice sounded harsh, colder than I’d ever heard it. I looked up and saw his normally happy face twisted. His mouth was pulled into a frown, his eyebrows pointed, forehead wrinkled. His eyes, usually so comforting, were cold and unforgiving as he glared at Finn. Pops was beside him was leaning on the desk. His eyes were pointed, scanning out potential threats. His hands, were gripping the desk tight, as though he was restraining himself. His jaw was clenched, and arms flexed under the SNL hoodie he wore. I turned my focus back on Dad’s speech.

“We are both writers and cast members, although we only appear in one segment in the show, Weekend Update. Any questions?”

Kids raised their hands. Susie wanted to ask if he knew Black Widow, Brian wanted to know if you had to go to college, Michelle wanted to know who they wanted to host that hadn’t already.

When nobody else’s hand was raised, Dad spoke up again. “We were asked to bring food, so we have donuts and chocolate milk, if you guys want to line up over there, your teacher will hand them out.” Everybody was about to get up when Finn spoke up.

“Wait, I have a question.” Pops and Dad glared but nodded tightly. “Why’d you adopt this kid?” He jabbed his thumb back at me. I saw Dad grab Pops.

“Excuse you?” Pops gritted out between clenched teeth.

“I mean, look at him, he’s useless, why would you want someone like that?”

Pops tore out of Dad’s grip and I stood up, managing to get myself between them fast enough. “Pops, don’t.”

He glared at Finn behind me before turning his gaze on me, only calming slightly. “He called you useless.”

“That’s because it’s true. He’s a useless piece of garbage that’s only good to make him do what you want.” Dad pushed off the desk he’d managed to restrain himself by, and moved to attack Finn too.

“Rex, help please.” Rex jumped up and got between Dad and Finn. I turned to my parents, willing them to stop. “Guys, please, you’re going to get in trouble.”

“My dad’s a lawyer.” Finn smirked. “I dare you to attack me.” Pops and Dad moved to take him up on it, and I turned to face Finn, keeping one hand on Pops to stop him.

“Would you shut the fuck up? I am trying to keep two grown men from attacking you, and trust me, they could probably break most, of not all, of your bones. Pretend you have some self-preservation and be quiet.”

Finn gave me a lazy smirk. Jesus, did everything he did have to be lazy? “I would love for them to try.”

I turned back to Rex. “Plan B. Could you do something to keep Rex quiet?” I grabbed Dad’s arm and Rex turned and just started talking, about Harry Potter, math, coffee, sleep, rattling off so fast that Finn didn’t have room to talk.

I turned to face my parents. I could still feel their flexed muscles through their clothes. “Guys, calm down please. If you aren’t going to calm down for you, then calm down for me.”

They looked at me. “He said you’re useless, Clarke, this is for you.”

“But I don’t want this. Please, he’s not lying. His dad is a lawyer, a really good lawyer. If you even look at him you’re going to get arrested. You hit him...” I trailed off. “Look, I’ve already lost too much. I can’t lose you too. Please, stop.” I begged. I felt Dad relax and he gently moved out of my grip, grabbing Rex and stopping his chattering. I turned my attention to Pops.

“Little man, I can’t let it go. He hurt you.”

“Yes, yes he did. You know what would hurt more? Having to visit you in prison. Don’t be stupid Pops. I need you with me. Please.” He met my eyes and slowly I felt his muscles relax. Not quite trusting him, I kept my hand on his arm. He reached out to pull me into a brief hug and I let go.

“Donuts are chocolate sprinkles.” He announced to the class, who got up immediately and rushed into a line to get donuts and chocolate milk. We found Dad outside the classroom, running a hand through his hair, and repeatedly kicking the wall.

“Dad.” I said and he looked up, walking over and pulling me into a hug.

“Little man. I’m sorry.” He pulled back. “You won’t ever lose us. You hear me? Ever.” I nodded, and he smiled for the first time this morning, pulling me into another hug. “Donuts?” Pops held the door open and we entered.

I was in the middle of convincing them to check me out when the alarm went off. All the other parents had left, and they looked confused and started to head toward the door, I guess thinking it was a fire alarm, which made sense since the alarm currently going off hadn’t been a thing when they went to school. Lock-Down alarm. It gave a special pattern of bleeps, as well as flashes of lights for any deaf kids.

“Pops, Dad, no!” They paused at the door, and I decided that was enough. The children in our class all had assigned jobs in case of a lock down, and Rex and I ran to close the blinds as we were assigned. Claire turned off the ancient desktops, Ryan turned off the lights and Smartboard. Brian, Klara, Rachel, and Brittany handed out textbooks. Mr. Williams locked the door and lowered the screen over the window. Everyone else flipped table and dragged desks to form a barrier before huddling down in the spots we always chose.

Pops and Dad stood in panicked confusion as we ran around. “Pops, Dad!” I hissed from me and Rex’s spot behind a toppled table. They ran over and jumped behind. “Drill?” I turned to face Rex. He shook his head.

“No way. The principal wouldn’t have done it when he knew parents would be on campus. Plus did you see Mr. Williams? He’s totally freaked. The real question is on or off campus.”

“It has to be off, right? I mean why would anybody want to shoot us up?”

“I don’t know. If it’s off campus they’ll come on the speaker soon.” I glanced at Dad and Pops. “Hey, hand me four.” Rex handed me four textbooks. “Hey, Pops. Dad.” They looked over and I handed them the books. “Two each. One for protection, one to throw.” I pointed at the door. “If someone comes in that door, throw a book unless they say “NYC1776911”, that’s the code for this school.” They nodded slowly. “If the phone rings when a shooter is in the room and you are told to answer it, and yes to all three questions, and the office will know someone’s in here. Otherwise answer red, white, blue.” I turned to Anderson. “Anything else?” He shook his head. “Alright. What’s the code?”

“NYC1776911,” they repeated dutifully.

“How do you answer the phone?”

“Three yes if shooters here, red white blue if it’s not.” We nodded and fell silent. There were kids crying, and kids telling them to shut up. Me and Rex leaned against the wall, one book over our chests and one book in our laps and played Rock Paper Scissors, then started to quiz each other on random facts when we got bored. Dad and Pops were both on their phones texting, probably each other.

After an hour of no sound kids started to get restless and the volume went up. Mr. Williams tried to get them to shut up, but it didn’t work, so he just gave up and let them whisper. Pops rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. Him and Dad were cuddled up against each other now, and I was grateful that Finn couldn’t see Dad’s head resting on Pops, who was playing with his hair.

Dad was closing his eyes to go to sleep when we heard loud bang, making several kids scream. Everyone looked around the room, expecting someone to apologize for dropping a textbook, but nobody did and soon kids were sobbing. I heard one kid say a prayer in Hebrew, another in Arabic, another repeating the Lord’s Prayer. I situated my cap on my head again. Pops and Dad reached out and I obediently scooted closer, dragging Rex with me.

I heard footsteps running down the hallway and stop at our door before bullets hit and broke the window. Kids screamed as a gloved hand reached in the door and turned the knob from the inside. Pops arm tightened around me and I saw Dad reach to wrap around Rex.

The man entered, surprisingly not immediately shooting anybody. Instead he looked around gun idly in his shoulder before he pointed at me. “You. Come here.”

Pops’s arm tightened around me. “No.”

The gunman gave a cold smile. “Alright.” In one quick movement he lifted his gun from his shoulder, aimed, and shot Rex in the leg.

“Rex!” I lunged toward him but Pops held me still. Dad took off his outer shirt and tried to slow the bleeding, whispering to Rex, who was sobbing and looked dangerously close to passing out.

“The boy. Now.” He pointed the gun at Claire. “Or I suppose I could shoot her.”

“No!” I heard myself shout. I squirmed out of Pops’s arms, being small had some advantages, and stood, holding a textbook tightly. “Please don’t hurt anyone.”

The shooter put his gun back on his shoulder. “Good. Put the book down and come here.” I shook my head slowly.

“What’re going to do to me?”

“I have plans for you, young man. Everyone else put up a fight. Now,” he moved the gun off his shoulder threateningly, “put the book down, and come here.” I bent to put the book down and started walking toward him. I glanced around the room and saw Mr. Williams on the phone. When he saw me look he flashed the screen at me. 911. I just had to stall until they got here.

I stopped two feet in front of him. “May I say goodbye?” He narrowed his eyes but nodded, moving the gun back to his shoulder yet again. I turned around, careful to keep both hands in view.

“Pops, Dad, I love you so much. You guys have done so much for me and I’m proud to be your son. My life was shitty before you found me, and I will never forget that. Tell Bella I love her.” Pops nodded, tears rolling down his face.

“We love you too,” Dad choked out between sobs. 

I turned to Rex. “Rex, you’ve been my best friend since before I could remember. You always let me stay over at your house if I needed too, and you have been a great relief from all of the idiot we’ve encountered. I’m sorry to leave you by yourself.” Rex could barely manage a nod through the pain.

Next was Mr. Williams. “You are an awful teacher. That being said, thank you for letting me and Rex go ahead of the rest of the idiots in this room.” He nodded, looking numb.

“Finn, you are a coward who only has friends because they are scared of you. You probably won’t amount to anything in life except a pity-here at your dad’s firm.” I heard footsteps and spoke louder. “Claire, thank you for organizing our library, Ryan for laughing occasionally at my jokes. Brian, you should’ve gotten class president, and you would’ve if the entire grade wasn’t terrified of Finn.”

The shooter grabbed my shoulder and I knew he’d heard the footsteps. “Enough talking. We are leaving.” I nodded and turned around.

I heard a voice scream “NYC1776911” and that was the only warning we got before a team ran in the door. “HANDS ON YOUR HEADS! STAY DOWN!” There was a loud commotion behind me and the shooter grabbed me tighter against him, putting his gun to my head. Well, this wasn’t part of the plan.

“YOU SHOOT HE DIES!” The cops all trained their guns on him. I tried to break free but he hit me in the head with the butt of the rifle and I stopped as pain blossomed on my head.

I was dragged out of the room. I heard Pops and Dad scream my name, but the shooter kept dragging until we were out front, where a circle of cops and other law enforcements surrounded the building. As soon as they saw us they started to yell, guns cocking and pointing at me, and the shooter behind me. “YOU SHOOT HE DIES!” He was met with silence, and started to move toward the circle, guns following. We arrived at the edge of the circle. “MOVE!” But they showed no sign of movement. He backed up slightly and yelled again. “LET ME OUT OR THE KID DIES!” I squirmed and he hit me in the head again.

“Sir! Let the kid go and we will negotiate!” A man in a suit stood with a bullhorn. He was sweating and holding a clipboard.

“Let me go, and the kid lives! There’s your negotiation!”

The man with the bullhorn raised it to his mouth like he was about to speak, but put it back down before he did. His eyes went above me and the shooter and he nodded slightly before turning his attention back to me.

Before he said anything a gunshot rang and I felt myself fall to the ground. I felt my head collide with the cement and thought I was dead before I processed that I was still thinking and breathing. There was a heavy weight on top of me and I tried to squirm away but couldn’t. I heard two sets of footsteps pound up to me, SWAT based on their shoes. The weight was lifted off of me and I was dragged forward and lifted partially by one arm. I heard a thump and felt someone grab my other arm. I was carried over to a ambulance.

“Any other injuries other than the head?” I shook my head and the EMT starting wiping at the blood that threatened to fall into my eye.

“My parents, my friends, are they okay?

“Hall number?”

“5.”

“Yeah, that whole section has been cleared.” She called one of the SWAT officers over. “Champ says his parents are here. Want to go find them?”

The officer nodded and turned to me. “Names?”

“Michael Che and Colin Jost.” He nodded and jogged away, saying something into his radio. “My friend? He got shot in the leg? Is he okay?”

She sighed. “Look kid, there’s a lot of people shot in the leg here. I’m sure your friend is fine, but I couldn’t say for sure. Now stay still until your parents get here and I can walk them through the options.” She held a antibacterial wipe next to my eye to catch any blood, and started checking for other injuries.

“Clarke!” I looked up and saw my parents running toward me. They managed to restrain from hugging me at a glare from the EMT and introduced themselves instead.

“I’m Amelia Brown. Your son has two injuries to the head. Concussion is probable, so keep him away from electronics and don’t let him strain his eyes on anything for more than thirty minutes, so no reading or anything either. As you can see, he is cut. You can either do normal stitches or butterfly stitches, I would suggest the latter. I could have those on him in five minutes and he could go home. Stitches would take longer.”

“Butterflies sound great. Do we need anything special to be able to take care of them?”

“Nope. Avoid getting them wet or pulling on them. If they get loose on the edges, just trim that off. Come in for a check up in 12 days, you should be able to take them off.” Dad nodded and she finished putting them on, assured there were no other injuries, and handed Dad the paperwork, which he quickly finished, then pulled out a card. “Call to set up an appointment. Hey, Hoff!” The SWAT officer from earlier came over.

“What’s up?”

She gestured at me. “He’s clear, and his parents are here. He good to go?”

“I can run down and let teacher know. The school’s clear, it was just the one guy, they just need to make sure all the kids are accounted for.”

“So you found the other kids he took?” He looked at me confused.

“Sorry, son, what?”

“He said ‘everyone else put up a fight’. He was trying to take me, I just thought he took other kids.”

“Shit. That’s the first we’ve heard of that. You’re contact info is on the sheet, right?” I nodded. “Go. Make sure you answer the phone if we call.” He jogged away, gesturing and talking into the radio.

“Can we pick up Bella?” 

“Yeah, little man, we can pick up Bella. You wanna hang at the studio after?”

I nodded and Pops crouched in front of me and I climbed on his shoulders, somewhere I hadn’t been in a long time.

When we got to Bella’s school, there was a line coming out of the office of screaming parents wanting to pick up their kids. I slumped on Pops shoulder to wait. The woman in front of us turned around.

“Heya,” she said with a tired smile on her faces.

“Hi. Long wait, huh?” She nodded.

“Yeah.” She looked up to me and her eyes widened. “What’s up with the battle wounds, kiddo?”

“I got hit in the head with a gun. Twice,” I said bluntly.

“By who?”

“The shooter from school.” I yawned and slumped further. “Pops, it hurts.”

“I know, little man. We’ll get you some medicine ASAP.”

Her jaw dropped. “Wait, you came from the school with the shooter?”

Pops sighed. “Yes ma’am, we are here to pick up his sister before we go home.”

I frowned. “I thought I got to see Aunt Kate and Uncle Keenan.”

“Right. We’re going to the studio. My bad.”

“Wait, were you the kid who got held hostage?” The woman seemed shocked.

“Yup.” She stared for awhile longer before turning around and tapping the shoulder of the person in front of her. “Move, let them through.”

He gave her an ugly look. “What? No, I’ve been waiting for thirty minutes.”

She pointed at me. “He’s the kid who got held hostage.” He looked up at me and his face changed and he stepped aside.

“Open up! Hostage kid is here!” People looked back and moved and we were allowed into the front office. The parents there had heard and attempted to shuffle out of the way but the office was too crowded. 

“Here, pass the license up!” One lady shouted. Dad pulled out his wallet and took out his drivers license and passed it up. “What’s the kid’s name?”

“Bella. Bella Che-Jost.”

The license reached the person at the front, who handed it to the receptionist at the front desk. The license was handed back and it was shouted back that she was on her way.

We waited until we saw Bella, and I waved. “Bella!” She fought through the crows to get to us.

“Bud, are you okay?” She reached up to grab my hand, and I nodded.

“We’re gonna go to the studio,” I said instead of answering the question she asked.

She smiled. “Bet. What are we waiting for?” Dad took her backpack, mine was still in my classroom, and we fought our way out, giving thank yous to everybody. Soon we were free and we got an Uber to drive us down to the studio.

I waved at Jimmy, the security guard, as we got on the elevator. We got out and headed to the read-through, which had started officially fifteen minutes ago, but actually wouldn’t start for another forty-five.

As soon as we entered we were swarmed by cast members and crew making sure I was okay. I just sat on Pops’s shoulders and let them, until I remembered why I wanted to come in the first place. “Uncle Kennan!” I squirmed and Pops let me down and I ran to Uncle Keenan. “You and Aunt Kate never finished telling me the story!”

“The story?”

“Yeah, about the zombies and the invisible man with the chainsaw.”

“Oh. That story. Alright buddy. Kate, you wanna pick up or should I?”

“I’ll pick up.” Aunt Kate started the story again and the room quieted down as the people started to listen to the story. Aunt Kate and Uncle Keenan has voices for all the different characters.

“And then the invisible man walked right up next to Helen and BANG-“ Uncle Keenan banged on the table and I screamed, my mind bringing me back to the events of the morning.

“No, don’t take me!” I jumped up and ran behind Pops, who turned and hugged me.

“Clarke, it’s okay, Uncle Keenan was just trying to tell the story, he didn’t mean to make you remember it. Nobody’s gonna take you, you’re safe here.” He whispered in my ear as I clung to him desperately, tears streaming down my face.

“Don’t wanna leave.” I whispered, holding as tight as I could to his shirt, trying to squeeze the image of the shooter out of my head.

“You don’t have to, bud. We can stay as long as you want.”

“Forever.”

“Okay. Okay, we can stay forever.” I heard Dad whisper to the table, I heard Uncle Keenan repeat his quiet apologies. “Clarke, I need you to slow your breathing down, okay? Come on, just breathe with me. In, out. There you go. In, out. In, out.” I calmed down and pulled away slightly.

“I didn’t mean it. I don’t wanna stay here forever. I wanna go home at some point.”

Pops just smiled. “Whatever you want little man.” I reached up to adjust my hat, but my hands hit my hair instead.

“Where is it?” I started looking desperately around the room. “Where’s my hat!”

“It fell off in the classroom bud, it’s in my bag.” Dad pointed to his black backpack. I ran to the bag and opened it, relieved to see the black Yankees cap that Pops had given to me the day we met. I shoved it down on my head and immediately felt better.

I climbed into a chair as Boss Man walked in the door. He surveyed the room and headed to his seat. “Clarke, glad to see you’re okay.” I nodded and he clapped his hands. “Let’s get this thing started.” I leaned into Dad’s side as it started. I looked around and saw Bella smile at something. I felt vibrations when Dad talked or laughed. I saw Pops make edits to a script in front of him, and I drifted off peacefully.


	4. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The timeline is kind of all over the place, just go with it. She’s only in like tenth grade here.
> 
> Slight angst, not too bad

Bella’s PoV

“Bells, you ready to go?”

“Why do I have to go,” I whined, pulling on my uncomfortable flats, “Can’t you just say that I’m sick or something?”

Dad sighed. “Honey, we’ve been over this. You have to go because he’s your cousin and he’s getting married.”

“But I haven’t even met her. And the wedding is in New Jersey.” I glared at him. “Jersey.”

Pops chuckled. “Suck it up kiddo. I’ve only met the girl once, at our wedding, and I have to go too. If I‘m being tortured, so are you.”

“Why doesn’t Clarke have to go?” I sulked as Dad braided my hair.

“Because he’s at a Math Team comp in Chicago.”

“That’s dumb.”

He ignored me and finished the braid. “Ready?”

“No,” I grumbled, but got up anyway. “Why do wedding shoes have to be so uncomfortable?”

“Just to spite you, I’m sure,” Dad answered sarcastically. “Michael, you good?”

“Yeah, let me just grab my jacket.” Pops disappeared out of my bedroom.

“Let’s get this over with.” I grabbed my phone. At Dad’s glare I put it in the purse I’d been provided for the event, also shoving some Asprin and earbuds in. Dad kept glaring. “What! Long ride!” He rolled his eyes and left the room, and I grabbed a phone charger too.

“Michael, c’mon, we’re gonna be late.” 

“Coming!” Pops entered the kitchen, pulling in his jacket. I noticed a charging cord in the inside pocket and grinned. “We aren’t going to be late, you have us getting there three hours early.”

“What!” Dad winced. “Dad! I have to spend an extra three hours in Jersey for no good reason?!”

“Michael, really?” Pops shrugged unapologetically. “Bells, you’ll be fine. I’m sure there will be somewhere for you to pout. Let’s go.” He opened the door and ushered us both out before locking it. We climbed into the Uber waiting outside, and started the ride. Pops managed to convince the driver to play a Broadway playlist, and I jammed for the whole hour long ride.

“Thanks.” Dad shook the driver’s hand when he pulled up at the wedding venue. He was immediately sucked into family pleasantries. I hung back with Pops until he also got sucked into it, then I went and found a corner. The place didn’t have WiFi and I sighed, settling in for a long wait.

“Bella! How are you!” I groaned internally and plastered on my polite smile.

“Hey Nana! I’m great, how are you?” 

“I’m just fine, thanks for asking. What’re you doing over here?”

“Um,” I searched for a reason that would excuse ignoring the family. “Looking for a bathroom.”

“Oh, honey, you passed it on the way in!” She took my arm and led me into a building and stopped at a door with a women’s sign. “I’ll wait here, I need to introduce you to everybody.”

“Thanks Nana.” I trudged into the bathroom, sitting in a stall for longer than necessary before washing my hands and leaving. She grabbed my arm again and pulled me from person to person, introducing me and forcing me into conversations with adults who looked just as uncomfortable as I felt.

“Boyd! You must meet Bella!” I mean, honestly, what kind of name is Boyd? She pulled me over to a boy who looked around my age, who was talking to Dad. I shot him a glare that should’ve made him give me a guilty smile, but instead made him give me a cheeky one.

“Save me.” I mouthed, but he just shook his head and left with a wave to Boyd.

“Make sure you find me in an hour Bells!” He said and I almost ran away. An hour!

“Boyd is a student here in Jersey, isn’t that right, Boyd.”

“Yes ma’am.” He sent me an apologetic smile and an idea formed in my mind.

“Nana, do you mind if Boyd and I talk some more? I’d love to hear what happens here in Jersey.” As expected, she beamed.

“Of course, Bella! Oh, I knew you two would hit it off.” I smiled and she wandered away, grabbing somebody’s arm and pulling them into a conversation.

“Um, so. What do you want to know about Jersey,” Boyd asked, seemingly steeling himself for an awkward conversation.

“Huh? Nothing. No offense, but I don’t give a shit what’s happening in Jersey, I just wanted to get away from her.”

“Oh, thank God.”

“So, what do you say we find somewhere to sit down ‘til the wedding starts and pretend we’re talking whenever someone tries to walk up?”

He grinned. “I say let’s do it.”

So that’s what we did for the next hour. We found a couple of chairs inside and sat down and played on our phones, and every time someone tried to walk over, we’d switch to the Photos app and pretend like we were sharing experiences.

“Bella, c’mon.” Pops poked his head inside. “I would say sorry for pulling you away, but something tells me you guys weren’t actually talking.” I grinned at him and waved at Boyd before following Pops.

“Weddings suck.” I announced as we sat down with Dad in between us. A lady sitting beside me glared and I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out.

“That’s only because you don’t know anyone here, Bells,” Dad said.

“How long until we can go home?”

“We have to go to a reception after this, but,” he said before I could object, “there will be food, so it should be right up your alley. We’re at a table with the three of us, Nana, Pops, Casey, Lisa, and someone you don’t know.”

“Better be good food,” I muttered under my breath, earning a nudge from Dad.

“Young lady, I don’t believe we’ve met?” The lady beside me said.

“I’m Bella, ma’am. I’m their daughter.” I stuck my hand out to shake.

“You’re Colin’s baby?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Darlin’, why are you complaining at a wedding. Don’t you know it’s a happy occasion?”

“Yes ma’am, but I don’t think anyone told that to the shoe companies.” Her mouth was open in shock, and I had to bite my tongue against a comment about eating flies.

“Colin, how did your daughter turn out so disrespectful? I would think you’d do a good job raising her.”

“Well, technically he’s only been raising me for three and a half tears, so give him a break. Plus, part of it is Pops too, don’t give Dad all the credit.” I knew I should stop, but I couldn’t help myself. I felt Dad flick my arm.

“Bella, behave.” He sounded tired and when I looked back he wasn’t smiling.

“Sorry,” I grumbled. He pointed at the woman next to my and I frowned but turned to her anyway. “I’m sorry for being rude.”

“Much better. You need to learn how to act like a proper lady.” She turned away and I stuck my tongue out at her back, earning another flick from Dad. 

When I turned back Pops was laughing. “I don’t like her.” I whispered. That made Pops laugh even harder. “What?”

Pops finally stopped and looked over at me. “That’s the other lady at our table.”

I groaned. “Are you kidding me?” He shook his head. “Can’t we just leave and get some McDonalds or something.”

“No. And be quiet, it’s starting.”

I was about to protest but the music got louder and everyone started to stand up, so I shut my mouth and stood up as well, silently cursing the shoes I was wearing.

I still didn’t even know my cousin’s name, but she was looking hella good when she walked down the aisle. Uncle Casey kissed her on the cheek and moved to his seat. I started to sit down but Dad glared at me and I stopped.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are here to witness the union of Patrick and Peggy in holy matrimony.” I snorted and Dad looked at me.

“PP.” I mouthed and he smiled before he remembered that he was supposed to be scolding me.

I zoned out for the rest of it, joining in for a couple of words whenever Dad nudged me. It went by pretty quickly, and soon we were being ushered inside for the reception.

I made sure I sat between Pops and Dad, avoiding any possibility of having to sit next to Ms. Proper Lady.

I pulled my phone out and connected my AirPods, but even Pops glared at me for that, even after I offered him one, so I put it away.

“So Bells, how’d you like the wedding? Boring enough for you?” Uncle Casey asked and I grinned. I knew I liked him for a reason.

“Why, Uncle Casey, however could I find the wedding anything but wonderful, with the monotone priest dude and the vows that went on for thirty minutes.” Ms. Proper Lady glared at me.

“Well Casey, I for one thought it was a beautiful ceremony. The venue was wonderful, and those vows were blessings from God.” I rolled my eyes.

“Thank you. Bella, have you met my sister, Rachel?” My mouth dropped open. How on earth could this lady be related to Dad?

“Sister?”

“Yes, Bella. Rachel was adopted when she was 7, been part of the family ever since,” Uncle Casey answered.

“Dad, how come you never said you had a sister?”

He shrugged. “You never asked.”

“Any other hidden siblings? I mean, the Internet doesn’t even know you have a sister.”

“No more hidden siblings. Rachel is very private, she asked that we not mention her, so we haven’t.”

“Pops? Did you know this?” He nodded, smiling around his glass of water.

Nana spoke up. “Bella, darling, how did you and Boyd get along?”

I grinned. “Oh, very well. We exchanged many meaningful stories.”

“That’s just delightful! He’s a son of one of Peggy’s friends. I’m sure we could arrange a date! Oh, you would be so cute!”

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Thanks Nana, but I’m already dating someone.”

“Oh, who’s the boy,” Rachel asked.

“Um, she’s a girl, actually. Her name is Vivian, but everyone calls her Viv.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure you girls make a wonderful couple.” I felt Dad and Pops’s eyes on me. With all the chaos that had happened at Clarke’s school, me and Viv had never actually told them.

I looked up at them. “Surprise.” They smiled and rolled their eyes, turning back to the conversation about taxes or some other equally boring adult thing.

Patrick, whom I have also never met, stood up and tapped a utensil on the side of a champagne glass. “Everybody, may I have your attention!” The room quieter down and I followed everyone’s gaze over to him. “Thank you so much for coming to our wedding, we are very grateful to spend this moment with God and his children.” I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to grumble but one look from Pops made me shut up. “Now, please enjoy the food. Dinner is served.”

I let out a cheer, which received a glare from my parents, but answering cheers were heard around the room, so I counted it as a win. Waiters came out carrying fancy salads and bread, and only the fact that Pops was two seconds away from whacking me and taking my phone stopped me from not touching it. I was not a fan of any lettuce that didn’t start with a ‘r’ and in with ‘omaine’ but G-Da started asking me a question and I found that eating was a good excuse to not answer questions about grades and friends. I would’ve felt guilty but I caught Uncle Casey doing the same thing.

It’s not that I didn’t love my grandparents, I did. Nana was a hero, and G-Da told the best stories. Usually I would love to talk to them, but Aunt Rachel glared at every time I re-enacted a story, and I found myself wondering how she was raised by the same people Dad and Uncle Casey were, they were so different.

Unfortunately I ran out of salad, and Dad wouldn’t let me have anymore bread because “it’ll ruin your appetite, Bella,” so I was left with no defense. I eyed my AirPods, and my fingers moved toward them, but Pops caught me and took them and put them in his coat pocket. “Talk,” he whispered in my ear.

“Bella, how did you and Viv get together?” I looked up at Nana.

“I’m sorry?”

“How did you and Viv get together?” I sighed and began the story with a cautious look at Aunt Rachel.

“I was at a sleepover with her and Anderson and-“

“Wait, you were at a sleepover with a boy?” Aunt Rachel looked scandalized.

“Yes, but since you know the ending of the story, shouldn’t you be worried about the girl?”

“Young lady, don’t speak to me like that,” Aunt Rachel said, and I snapped.

“Okay, my turn for questions. What happened to you?”

“Bella!” Dad said, and Pops thumped me. I ignored both of them.

“Look, lady. You were seven when you got adopted, I was thirteen. I’d been abused at six different houses. My biological parents are currently in prison for what they did to my brother and I. And yet, I seem to be much better than you. I know it’s not the people who raised you, because Dad and Uncle Casey are great, but you seem to hate everything I say or do. So what happened to you!” Everyone at the table stared at me, but I only looked at Aunt Rachel.

“Bella,” Dad’s voice was cold. “Come with me, we need to talk.”

“No, she needs to expl-“

“Bella. Come. Here.” I looked up at Dad’s face and flinched. His face was hard, unsmiling. His eyes pierced. His hand was on my shoulder and dug uncomfortably. I gulped and tried to pull my shoulder away, but his grip only tightened.

“Yes sir.” I whispered and stood up. His grip let up minutely as he led me to an empty dressing room. He closed the door before fully letting go. I stood where he left me as he paced the floor. My heart was cold and I felt dread in the pit of my stomach.

“Bella. Listen to me. Do not talk, or mutter, or grumble. Just listen. Do you understand me?” I nodded. “Words, Bella.”

“Yes sir, I understand.” I said quietly.

“Look at me.” My eyes snapped up to his and I wanted to look away when I saw that the coldness was still there, but knew better than that. “That was unacceptable. I know you were annoyed and didn’t want to be asked all those questions, but it’s a wedding. That’s what happens. My sister has been through too much to be questioned by a sixteen year old.” I bit my tongue against an objection as he continued. “Part of the abuse she suffered was in training to become a ‘proper lady’ and those stuck with her, and she still obeys many of those rules because some part of her is still scared of getting abused.” He closed his eyes and when they opened again they were softer. “I know you’ve gone through a lot, okay? I do. I know that the attitude you get is just something you do, but it makes Rachel worse because she thinks someone is going to come after her for not being around good company. So I’m going to need you to please just behave for the next four hours, then we can go home and you can be the Bella we know and love, okay?”

“Yes sir. I didn’t mean to hurt her, I promise.” The last piece of ice left Dad’s eyes and he smiled slightly.

“I know you didn’t.” I hugged him and pulled away.

“Okay. Four hours. I can do that.”

“Thank you.”

We walked back out. I stayed slightly behind Dad, because I figured that’s what a proper lady would do, and let him lead me to our table, pull out my chair, and push me in. The table all looked at me as I came back, but I ignored all told them and looked at Aunt Rachel. “I’m very sorry, Aunt Rachel. I didn’t mean to offend you or say something was wrong with you. I hope you’ll forgive me.” I felt the tension as the whole table turned to Aunt Rachel, holding their breath as they waited for her response.

“Of course, Bella. Thank you for apologizing.” I smiled and joined the rest of the table’s gentle relief. The waiters came back shortly after and I thanked them as they took my empty plate and placed a plate of chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

I carefully watched Aunt Rachel, only starting to eat when she did, trying to cut pieces the same size as hers, forcing myself to eat slowly. I smiled and answered all the questions politely, censoring all of the events, not mentioning any sleepovers with boys, cuss words, or anything else that might trigger Aunt Rachel. Based on Dad’s look, I was doing pretty well.

Soon it was time for speeches. I managed to sit through some of them, but by the fifth, I was getting restless and I sent Pops a desperate look. He sent me an apologetic look, but he didn’t do anything. By the seventh speech I’d started fidgeting, and by the ninth speech I’d started mouthing Hamilton. I caught Dad’s eye, but he just shook his head. I managed to sit still through the tenth, but the eleventh droned on and on. I counted tiles on the wall, floor, and ceiling, but that only took so long, and the bridesmaid was still talking. I considered texting Anderson, but I doubted that fit in the proper lady category. The bridesmaid stopped and a groomsman stood up and I couldn’t help the small groan that came out. Pops glanced at me and took pity, putting a fist on an open palm. I copied and we played Rock Paper Scissors until the groomsman stopped.

I looked at Aunt a Rachel, but she seemed to be doing fine, just listening to the speeches with an amused expression.

At last, after fifteen speeches, it was time for the first dance of the couple. The way I saw it, they could either be bad, which would be entertaining, or they could be good, which would be entertaining. But no! They just kind of stood there and swayed slightly.

I checked my watch. Two hours left. I forced my eyes to stay trained on the couple, and made my mind focus on what song it was. It was over pretty soon, and the band slid into something happier. Pops offered Dad his hand, Nana offered G-Da hers, Uncle Casey offered Aunt Lisa his, and I was left stuck at the table with Aunt Rachel.

I felt her stare on me, and pulled out my phone. “Smile, Aunt Rachel!” She did and I snapped a picture. “Would you like to see it?”

“I would love to.” I started to lean across the table, but corrected myself and got up to sit in the chair next to her. “Oh, what a lovely picture! You are very good at that, young lady. Do you have any others?”

“Yes ma’am.” I swiped through my pictures, showing her some of Dad, which I’d thought she’d appreciate, and some of the city.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see Boyd. “May I have this dance?” I turned to Aunt Rachel but she waved me away.

“Yes you may.” I grabbed his hand and he led me to the dance floor. “I have a girlfriend, just so you know.”

“Yeah, I figured, you gave off that vibe. I have a boyfriend.” He shrugged. “I just don’t wanna have to dance with anymore old ladies.”

“I feel ya. If I have to talk to one more person about school, I’m going to shoot myself.”

He grinned and we started to dance over-dramatically, at one point attempting the salsa, another the tango. Even the box step we failed at, but we had fun trying.

About an hour later, Boyd had to go, so we exchanged numbers and waved goodbye. I grabbed a glass of water and and sat down at our table again, where Dad and Pops had joined Aunt Rachel.

I sat down next to Pops quietly and he kissed my forehead before taking the rest of my water and chugging it. I opened my mouth to object but closed it when I remembered I was supposed to be being a proper lady. I checked my watch and realized it was past the time we were supposed I leave. I showed Pops and he showed me the Uber app, showing that it was two minutes away. I nodded and sat quietly until his phone chimed.

“I’m really sorry, Rachel, but we are going to have to take our leave in order to get Bella here to bed at a decent hour. We don’t want her missing any beauty rest,” Pops said as he stood up and gestured for me to do the same. “I hope we see you soon.” He kissed her on the cheek and I copied him. Dad also kissed her in the cheek, and we managed to leave with a minimum numbers of stops.

I sighed when we got into the car, taking my shoes off and resting my head on the cool glass.

I heard Pops let out a sigh of relief when the driver drove off of the property.

We sat in silence for about half of the ride before I spoke up. “Dad, how come Aunt Rachel never went to therapy?”

“What makes you say she didn’t?”

“Well, all that stuff was from before she was seven, but she still worried about it.” I shrugged. “Seems like if she had a therapist they would’ve worked it out.”

“She did have a therapist, but the therapist decided that the side effects of that particular trauma weren’t too bad, so she focused on other ones instead, and never really got around to it. It wasn’t really anything that we couldn’t adjust to at home, so we just went with it.”

I nodded and the car went back to silence. We pulled up at the apartment building. We thanked the driver and left the vehicle, riding the elevator up to the apartment and entering. It was about 9:00, so I flopped down on the couch to get an episode of Brooklyn 99 in before I went to bed.

“No, no, no, go to sleep.”

“What! Just one episode, please!”

“Nope. Bed. If you aren’t there before I get to three I’m taking your phone. 1.” 

“Fine, fine, I’m going. Good night.”

“Sweet dreams, tiger.”

I went to my bedroom but I wasn’t really tired, so I sat down on my floor and pulled out one of the children’s books off of my bookshelf. I flicked through the pages, looking at the pictures and ignoring the words. I heard a knock at my door. “Decent.”

Pops walked in and saw me reading and chuckled. “Hey Colin!” Dad came in the room and saw me.

“Honey, I meant go to sleep, not find a book to look at.”

“I know.” I replied. He chuckled and bent down, gently pulling the book from my hand and placing it on my night side table, before grabbing my hand and pulling me up, and lightly nudging until I fell down onto my bed. They pulled the covers up, and kissed my forehead.

“Good night. Sweet dreams.”

“Don’t let the bed bugs bite,” Pops added. They turned off the light and gently closed the door, and I allowed sleep pull me under.


	5. New

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, just pretend like the apartment has five bedrooms instead of three, okay? I know that’s a lot, just go with it

Bella’s PoV

We all stood outside of the building. After lots of discussion, Dad and Pops decided that they wanted to foster more kids, and we were on our way to pick up the first ones now. They were siblings like us, an older brother and younger sister, 10 and 7. Their parents were struggling with custody, I didn’t get the full story.

“We ready?” Clarke and I nodded and we all walked inside. They had a play area, which was supposed to be neutral ground. Clarke immediately went over to Sara, the little girl, and Dad and Pops were talking to a social worker, so I took it upon myself to talk to Jason, the brother.

“Hey.” I plopped down beside him and looked over his shoulder to see what book he was reading. “Oh, Harry Potter? The fifth one is the best.”

He glared at me, then back down at the book. “You don’t have to pretend to like me. I know you’re just taking us until Mom and Dad figure out their shit. No need to act like you want us.”

I shrugged, remembering my similar behavior when I was in foster. “Yeah, well, just ‘cause it’s temporary doesn’t mean I can’t like you.”

“Don’t act like you know me. You don’t know what having parents like mine is like.”

I smirked. “Really, I don’t? Both my biological parents are in jail. I only got adopted four years ago by those guys.”

That gave him a shock, and he turned back to his book when he couldn’t think of a comeback.

“Who’s your favorite?” He seemed surprised that I continued to talk to him.

“Umm, either Ron or Hagrid.”

“Ah. You haven’t met my favorite character yet. My favorite one you know is Hermione.”

He nodded, but didn’t talk, and I let him read, sitting next to him in silence.

A whine was heard and his head snapped up and zeroed on his sister, who was whining. From what I saw, Clarke and her were playing, and he had a toy she wanted.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” Jason was up in a matter of seconds, grabbing the toy and hitting Clarke on the face. I grabbed his arm and held him on a hug, pinning his arms while Dad checked on Clarke and Pops on Sara. When Dad made sure Clarke was okay, he turned to us.

“Jason, I understand you were worried for your sister, but we don’t hit people okay?” He was using his nice-but-dont-disagree voice, and I physically winced at Jason’s response.

“Fuck you, you don’t know me. Get away from her.” He shouted and tore away from me and kicked Pops in the shin until he stepped far away from Sara.

“Jason, stop now. Michael was just helping her. Apologize now.” Dad had dropped any pretense of nice.

“No, I’m not apologizing, he was touching my sister.” I noticed his defensive stance, the fact that he’d placed himself between the men, and boy, in the room and Sara.

“Jason. Apologize.”

“No, Dad stop.” His glare turned to me and I almost shrunk back. “He’s scared. Look.”

I slowly approached him, on my knees, making myself shorter than both of the siblings. “Jason, look at Sara. Is she hurt?”

He looked apprehensive but turned and looked at her. When he didn’t see any injuries, he stuck his arm out and she tapped it three times. I saw his shoulders slump slightly and his fists dropped. He didn’t move from his position though. I spoke up again.

“Jason, look she’s fine, right?” He nodded slowly. “Which means Michael didn’t hurt her?” He nodded again. “So he didn’t do anything wrong. You need to say sorry. We will not blame you for protecting your sister, hell I would’ve done the same for Clarke. We aren’t mad, because you only did it because you thought she was on danger. But you gotta apologize for kicking Michael and punching Clarke okay?”

“But, if you aren’t mad, what am I apologizing for?” His voice was small.

“Here sit down, champ.” He sat down next to me, and I continued. “Imagine if someone hit you on accident. Would you be mad?”

He frowned. “No, they didn’t mean it.”

“Right, but you’d still want them to say sorry for hitting you, right?”

“I guess.”

“Same thing here. You didn’t mean it, but you should still apologize.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “But you aren’t mad?”

“No.”

He thought about it for a while. “If I say sorry, will you help me protect her?”

“Of course, champ. But there won’t be anything to protect her from with us, I promise.”

He bit his lip. “Okay.” He stood up and walked over to Clarke first. “I’m sorry I punched you.”

Clarke shrugged. “It’s okay. I remember what is was like in foster care. I don’t blame you.” The two boys fist bumped. 

Then Jason turned to Pops. He seemed more nervous, which was understandable, since Pops was a full grown adult that was towering over him, with full power over his current living situation and he had just kicked him repeatedly. He looked back at me and I nodded, motioning for Pops to get closer to his level when he turned back. Thankfully Pops saw and crouched down to his level.

“I’m sorry I kicked you Mr. Che.”

“It’s cool, dude, call me Michael. But do you understand you can’t do that anymore?” Jason nodded and Pops grinned, ruffling his hair. “Then what do you say we go home, y’all pick which room you want, then we go out for some food.”

“Pizza?” Sara piped up from the corner. Jason looked questioningly up at Pops, who chuckled.

“Yeah, you guys are gonna fit in just fine. Pizza it is.”

We went home. Sara chose the room next to Clarke’s, and Jason picked the one next to mine. Once they were settled Pops grabbed a cap for both of them, because a hoodie wouldn’t have fit either of them and we headed out. 

Apparently Sara liked pineapple on pizza, which led to Dad dramatically asking the sky what he had done to deserve such a fate, Pops buying a large pizza just for one seven year old, then one for Jason, me, Clarke, Dad, and himself for good measure, earning a eye roll from Clarke and I and a wide-eyed expression from Jason and Sara when they realized someone had actually just bought them a full pizza.

Jason ate like a starved boy, although based on how skinny he was, there may have been some truth there. He managed to eat half of the pizza and half of another slice before he couldn’t force anything else in him. Sara managed two slices before getting full. Pops asked for some boxes and we paid and left. Jason insisted on carrying his box as well as Sara’s, and part of my mind supplied that he was trying to be useful so that we’d keep him. We wondered around the city for a while until Dad picked a path I knew quite well, and grinned.

Sara, who’d allowed herself to be carried on Dad’s shoulders questioned him, but he told her it was a surprise, and I smiled in memory of Clarke and I’s day with Pops all those years ago.

I grinned when we arrived at the studio. Jason looked shocked when we were allowed in, and even more so when we got in the elevator.

As soon as we left the elecator Dad and Pops were swarmed. Being head writers that had been missing almost all day did that to them. Dad barely managed to and Sara off to me before he was whisked away for overseeing some sketch, Pops smiled over his shoulder as someone talked to him about camera angles.

Jason and Sara looked slightly scared so I led them to Dad and Pops’s office, putting down the pizza boxes and gesturing for Jason to do the same.

Clarke claimed his usual chair, and I pointed at the couch for Jason and Sara to sit down, claiming Dad’s chair as my own.

“So, this is studio 8H. Dad and Pops work here, they’re head writers for a show called Saturday Night Live. They also do a segment on it, a news parody thing. This is their office. I’m sitting in Dad’s chair, that’s Colin. Clarke is in Pops’s chair, that’s Michael,” I added, realizing they probably didn’t know who I was referring to when I said Dad and Pops. “We can chill in here, or we could give you a tour. I know some people who’d love to give you guys some candy.”

“Candy?” Sara spoke up from her place at Jason’s side.

“Yup. So you in?”

“Yeah!” She grinned and she was adorable.

I turned to Jason. “You want in to? Clarke can stay here with you if you want.”

He shook his head. “I’ll go with Sara.” I nodded.

“Alright. Wanna piggy back ride?”

“Sara can get one, I can walk,” he said cautiously.

“I’ll give Sara one.” Clarke volunteered. “She’s smaller so I can carry her.”

“Alright. So how about it, Jason?” He bit his lip and nodded. “Bet. Hop on.”

Jason hopped on my back and Sara jumped on Clarke’s. We went around the office, collecting hugs and candy, until all four of us had bulging pockets. We were about to stop when my watch beeped, and I looked up at Clarke.

“Popcorn!” We both said at the same time and ran to Boss Man’s office. We slowed when we got to the door, catching our breath before knocking.

“Come in kiddos.” We grinned as we walked in.

Boss Man was already making us bags when we walked in. He turned and raised his eyebrow when he saw the kids on our backs. “And who might these be? More rascals after my food?” He was joking, of course. Boss Man was never mean, not to us. But Jason and Sara didn’t know that.

“N-no. I swear I w-wasn’t - we weren’t, d-don’t hurt us.” Jason stuttered, hiding behind me and gripping my shirt. “Th-they took the candy, not us, I promise. They just gave it to us. He let go and slid down my back. “H-here, you can have it, don’t hurt us.” He dug his fingers in his pockets and started to pull out candy.

“Jason, he was joking. You can keep the candy.” I looked over at Sara who had started to pull candy out of her pockets too.

“Hey little man, come here.” Clarke walked over to Boss Man who handed him six bags of popcorn. “You four and your parents. Make sure you don’t eat theirs, you hear me?” Clarke noises and grinned. Boss went behind his desk and grabbed two Ziploc bags and went to Jason and Sara.

“Here you go, looks like you need something to carry all that in.” Then he bent down and picked up Jason’s candy, which was in a pile in front of his feet, then laid the Ziploc on the floor, and did the same with Sara’s. Then he went back around his desk and grabbed a big bag of Skittles opening it and handing three packs to each of us and me the rest of the big bag.

“Be a dear and dump that on the writer’s table? They need a boost.” Leave it to Boss Man to manage a burn while acting nice.

Jason and Sara were still frozen staring at Boss Man, Jason slightly in front of Sara. He knelt down in front of them.

“Kiddos, I didn’t mean to scare you, I forget that some things trigger you guys. Same thing happened with those two. To u guys feel free to come raid my food anytime, okay?” They nodded. “What are your names?”

“I’m Jason, and that’s Sara.” He had his small voice, the same one he had when he was apologizing.

“Well Jason and Sara, I am Lorne, but they call me Boss Man, and you can to.” They both nodded. “Now, if you would, my writers need a sugar rush so they can write better, so would you mind delivering that bag of Skittles?”

“You want us to?” Sara asked, peeking from around her brother.

“It would make my day.” She nodded seriously and grabbed the bag from my hands.

“Yes sir.” Her eyes held the determination that only a seven-year-old could have.

“Well, what are you waiting for Princess?”

She grinned at him and turned and ran down a hallway, pausing when she realized she didn’t know where she was going. I pointed the correct direction and she ran off. The three of us jogged after her, catching up in the writers room, where everyone was descending on the candy like sharks. 

We watched for a while then I spoke up. “C’mon, before they steal our candy too.” Jason and Sara’s eyes widened and they were close behind as we sprinted back to Dad and Pops’s office.

It had been about a week, and Jason and Sara seemed to be settling in well. I found part of me wishing that we wouldn’t ever have to give them back, and I knew everyone else felt the same.

I should’ve known it wouldn’t last too long. When I got home from school, Dad and Jason were yelling at each other.

“What happened?” I whispered to Sara.

“Jason got in a fight at school, and Colin yelling at him.”

“A fight? Why?”

She bit her lip but still answered. “He said that it didn’t matter because they weren’t his parents, and his parents didn’t care about him.”

“Oh.” I waited until Dad left Jason’s room, barely glancing at me before grabbing a beer and going to his room. I frowned. He hadn’t drank anything since Jason and Sara got here, their parents had a alcohol problem, and they hadn’t wanted to trigger anything.

I got up and grabbed an ice pack, cream from the first aid, and a couple bandaids and knocked on Jason’s door, not waiting for a response before entering the room. “Heya champ.”

“Go away. Quit pretending to care.”

“I can’t.”

He glared. “What?”

I hummed, gently grabbing his arm and applying the cream to cuts before putting bandaids on them. “I can’t stop pretending to care if I’m not pretending. Put this on your eye.”

He scowled but did as I said. “No nobody cares about me.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really? Not even Sara?”

“Well yeah, but she doesn’t count.”

“Why doesn’t she count?”

“She’s my little sister, she has to care.”

“Yeah, well Pops and Dad are your foster parents, they have to care too.”

His eye roll rivaled mine. “Not all foster parents care.”

“That’s true. But they do. Trust me, they are the best thing for you right now.”

“Why don’t they love me?” He said it quietly, and if I hadn’t been paying close attention I wouldn’t have caught it.

“Who?”

“My parents.” He looked up at me, tears in his eyes.

“They do.”

“No they don’t. If they loved me I wouldn’t be here right now.”

“No, you’re here because they love you,” said gently. “Look Jason, your parents have problems. But instead of dragging you into them, or giving you up completely, they chose to put you in foster care until they could fix them.”

“Then why are they getting a divorce?”

I sighed. “Jason, their divorce has nothing to do with you. Sometimes parents just fall out of love. It doesn’t mean they love you any less. I’m sure they tried their hardest, but sometimes the best intentions aren’t enough to make it work. They separate so that you can live life the best you can, rather than feel weighed down by their fighting.”

He frowned. “Then why didn’t they say that?”

“Well, the fact that you can understand all of that doesn’t mean Sara would. They didn’t want to confuse you even more than you already were.“

“How do you know all of that?”

“My parents never told me any of that. They stayed together. They were abusive alcoholics that were always drunk, high or both. They are currently in jail for child neglect, illegal possession of drugs, and assault charges. But I have a friend who’s parents are divorced, and we often discuss it.”

“Oh.” He sat in silence.

“But, that doesn’t mean you can get into fights to get rid of your anger, or act out, alright? We love having you and Sara here, but if you keep acting out, they may think it’s something we’re doing, and then you’d have to leave.”

“No, I don’t want to.” Jason gripped my shirt like I was about to dump him out the apartment right then.

“We don’t want you to leave either, okay? Tell you what, next time you feel like this find me, and we can talk. And if you need to punch something, we can find you a pillow or some karate class or something, okay?”

“Okay.” He nodded.

“Now, what’re the odds that you said something mean to Dad that you should go apologize for.”

“High,” he said sheepishly.

“Alright, you better get on that.”

“Okay.” He jumped of the bed, and got to the door before turning around and giving me a hug. “Thank you.” 

“Of course, champ.”

We ended up having them for only six months. Dad and Pops bought them both a phone so that we could stay in contact.

I eyed their parents when we went to give them up. They seemed like decent people, neither looked like a pedophile or anything. I was distracted from my judgment by hugs from both Jason and Sara.

“Bye Bella.” Their voices were muffled, but I could hear tears in both of them.

“Hey, none of that. I’m here anytime, okay? Call, text, visit. Always.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” They nodded and went to their real parents, where there was a honestly heartwarming reunion. We had a group hug and went home, which felt a little empty now that they were gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I’m aware that was a sucky ending, just ignore that.


	6. Girls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it’s super short, but it popped in my mind and I had to. Also, Bella’s last name is now Chost, cuz why not

Bella’s PoV

“Ms. Chost, that outfit is widely out of dress code. You are distracting the men in the room. You need to go to the office and change.”

I wrinkled my brow. “The men? But I’m trying to distract the girls.” The class burst into laughter, and I sent Viv a wink.

In all fairness, it probably wasn’t the best idea to then argue with my racist, sexist, homophobic, because all good things come in threes, teacher, but I couldn’t help myself. Which is how I landed in the principals office with Pops yelling at me.

“Bella, what the hell is going on?” I winced at Pops’s furious expression and turned to the principal.

“Really, Mr. Novak, you couldn’t have called the other one?” It’s not that I thought Pops wouldn’t be on my side after I told him what happened, but Dad wasn’t so quick to jump to conclusions.

“Bella, explain to me why I had to leave a pitch meeting to come see you in the principal’s office. And why aren’t you wearing the clothes you were wearing this morning?” I glanced down at the clothes Id been forced to change into and glared at the principal.

“Well, this idiot made me change.”

“Bella,” I could see Pops actively fighting against his anger, “Don’t call your principal an idiot.”

“Well then tell him not to act like one. Oh, and tell Mr. Milton that too.”

Pops looked ready to wack me when Mr. Novak spoke up. “Sir, the reason we called you was because your daughter was wearing inappropriate clothing, and then fought the teacher when she was told to change.” He sounded tired, which he probably was.

Pops’s anger disappeared, replaced with confusion. “Inappropriate clothing?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, apparently my shorts were too short, and my shirt showed too much shoulder.” I shrugged. “I did tell them you were busy and suggested they call you later, but they didn’t listen.”

Pops looked at Mr. Novak. “I know your school policy, and I saw what she was wearing this morning and it was fine.” He frowned. “I thought you were wearing one of my sweatshirts. That ‘Nah.’ -Rosa Parks one”

“I was, but Mr. Milton said that it was inappropriate too.”

“What, why?”

“Probably because he didn’t like that it supported black people.”

“What were you wearing under it?”

“My SNL t-shirt, the Stefon one.”

“That doesn’t show shoulder, does it?”

I smirked. “Nope.”.

“And the shorts?”

“The dark-blue Nike ones.”

“Those are like, low thigh.”

“Yes. Yes they are.”

Mr. Novak rubbed his eyes. “Sir, between you and me, I didn’t see anything wrong with her outfit as it was explained to me either. But as she had already changed, as well as disrespected a teacher, I must follow rules. There will be nothing against her record, I’ll even have her teachers mark her present, but she does have to leave campus for the rest of the school day.”

I looked at him, surprised that he was on my side. “Sorry for calling you an idiot then.”

He chuckled. “That is quite alright Bella, I have been called much worse.”

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Novak.” Pops said, shaking his hand.

“Not at all, Bella is a very interesting child. Have you heard her thoughts on koalas?”

Pops laughed. “Yes, yes I have. Let’s go Bella, I need to get back to the pitch.”

“I get to go to the studio?”

Pops narrowed his eyes, then looked back at Mr. Novak. “How bad was she?”

“Not at all. I must admit I don’t like Milton either, but he’s the only one we’ve got.”

Pops nodded. “Yes, you can come to the studio.”

“Bet. Ice cream?”

“Don’t push it.” We bickered all the way there, but it was light, and I was happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I did steal the court scene dialogue from Instant Family.
> 
> I’m going to use this fic to do all of the random ideas that pop in my head for kids of Michael and Colin. Some may be trigger worthy, but I will put that in the notes or chapter summary, so keep an eye out.
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


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